Efactory expands coworking space

The opening of a semiprivate coworking space, named Coworking@Brick, was announced at the Efactory’s 10th anniversary event.

Executive Director Rachel Anderson said the offices will be located on the third floor of Brick City Building 3 for use by remote workers, small-business owners and entrepreneurs.

“We are excited to share that we will be open for business in our second location for members who want to rent semiprivate offices, starting next month,” Anderson said at the event July 19.

She described the new coworking space as being “just across the street” in Missouri State University’s Brick City, a collection of six rehabbed buildings that provide artistic and collaborative spaces for the university and private entities. Brick City is part of the IDEA Commons historic warehouse district, described by university officials as an urban innovation park. The roughly 8,000-square-foot coworking space will have three conference rooms and 14 semiprivate offices.

In an interview following the announcement, Anderson said the need for additional coworking space has accelerated with changes in work life, with traditional office jobs giving way to flexible arrangements. The rise of remote work also increases the need for semiprivate offices. It’s a trend that was kicked into high gear by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the Efactory had 120 tenants across its over 22,000 square feet of leasable space, including Walker Tek Solutions, Alliance Maintenance, Torrent Consulting, The App Pros, SwipeSum and Apt Crowd, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. According to the Efactory’s most recent annual report, more than 200 coworking members are on monthly plans or day passes.

A Wall Street Journal article in February named Springfield the nation’s top city for remote work.

The project to ready Coworking@Brick began in January, and the new space will be ready to accept tenants in August, Anderson said.

Rates in both locations are the same, she said – $300 per month for a semiprivate office, $200 for a dedicated desk, $100 for a floating desk and $50 for a virtual office. A 10-day pass is available for $100, and a day pass is $20.

The space already has an anchor tenant, Cape Girardeau-based technology incubator Codefi Foundation on Rural Innovation, that is expanding into Springfield, Anderson said. Codefi aims to expand the digital economy, particularly in rural areas, according to past reporting. The company partners with the Efactory on digital workforce development initiatives in 47 counties in southern Missouri, according to its website.

She said some of the Efactory’s current coworking members have expressed an interest in upgrading to furnished, semiprivate offices in the new building.

Anderson said she and Kim Dixon, the Efactory’s administrative and financial coordinator, have been housed at the new Brick City space since spring, watching the progress to get the space up and running.

“You’ll have the energy of coworking, the inspiration and the connection that happens in shared spaces, and you’ll have the amenities that we share here at the Efactory: business support services, networking opportunities, fast internet and, of course, coffee,” Anderson said. “But you’ll also have a dedicated desk with more privacy.”

Anderson described the space as a full-circle type of story.

“This new-to-us space used to be occupied by the Marlin (Co.) advertising agency up until they were acquired,” she said. “Dennis Marlin, the founder, is now working alongside his son, Jeff Marlin, on his own company, and they call the Efactory home.”

The Marlins’ company, Incent, developed a rewards platform for food service operators.

Anderson noted the Efactory also has taken on two university offices: noncredit training and student employment.

“It just made sense as we continue to build bridges and we meet the needs of businesses and employers,” she said.

Taking risks
Allen Kunkel, MSU’s associate vice president for economic development and the director of the Roy Blunt Jordan Valley Innovation Center, called the Efactory’s trajectory over its 10-year history “quite a journey.”

“The university has taken numerous risks to get to this point,” he said. “A pretty significant risk all started when they invested with the city in renovating a former feed mill into the Jordan Valley Innovation Center, and that was our first step in IDEA Commons. That was even before the whole concept of IDEA Commons even existed.”

Kunkel said the concept of IDEA Commons is for students, faculty and staff to work with private businesses. The idea further crystallized into the formation of a business incubator that would become the Efactory.

“People told us it’s never going to work – you know, university incubators never work,” he said.

Likewise, the building that houses the Efactory was another risk.

“You have a manufacturing plant, no windows – how are you going to make this work?” he said. “And you know, we dove in and we took another future risk.”

Workforce development
Brad Bodenhausen, MSU’s vice president of community and global partnerships, said officials with the higher education institution want to make it easier for employers to work with the university to meet the need for workforce development. He added that the Efactory is the point of connection between the university and the community.

“So naturally, we wanted the Efactory to become the front door of this effort to better coordinate and communicate what we do and what we will continue to do more of in the area of employer partnerships,” he said.

With MSU’s noncredit professional development and student employment services offices now housed in the Efactory, Bodenhausen said the goal is to coordinate with employers. A central landing page, at MissouriState.edu/partnerships, connects students, programs and businesses, he said.

“That’s the one-stop shop,” he said.

This fall, Bodenhausen’s office will unveil a renewed system for employer outreach, he said.

“We need to ask questions so we know what the needs of employers are in the community and across the state, because those change over time,” he said.

The new process will function as a matchmaking system to help employers connect with academic offices.

The university will seek to link undergraduate students and employers for internships, mentoring and similar opportunities. Bodenhausen also announced an initiative that impacts graduate students: a sponsored graduate assistantship.

Grad students often have on-campus assistantships that allow them to work for 20 hours in exchange for tuition waivers and pay. Bodenhausen said the sponsored graduate assistantships will allow employers to take on grad students and pay for their 20 hours per week of work.

Bodenhausen said grad students from any program are eligible, provided the university can locate a willing sponsor who needs services that match their area of study. About 10 students already have been matched, he said.

The program adds to businesses’ talent development pipelines and gives them a chance to try somebody out as a potential new member of a team, Bodenhausen said.

“And, ideally, help keep them in Springfield,” he added. “We have students from all over the state, all over the country, all over the world here at Missouri State, and this kind of connection of students and employers can be a big part of our talent attraction strategy, and a big part of our economic development strategy for the community.”