When it comes to attracting companies to lovely but not exactly low-cost Santa Cruz, the city just south of Silicon Valley has a problem: no airport. Without an ultra-convenient air link the city struggled to attract large employers and the jobs they’d bring to the area. So what did the city’s creative mayor, Ryan Coonerty, decide to do? Start a coworking space.
“We realized after chasing a lot of companies that instead of attracting one 200-person business, we should attract 200 one-person businesses. The economic impact is bigger, and some of those businesses will grow,” he told Fast Company.
NextSpace, the start-up co-founded by Coonerty, just closed a $700,000 fundraising round and now has four locations in California. In Santa Cruz the space has attracted 200 members and has also proved a boon to nearby businesses, which are serving the programmers, therapists, comedians and lawyers who utilize NextSpace.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Coworking spaces: an economic development strategy? | Reuters
Author: Jessica Stillman
