After changing its face several times after its inception in Indian commercial real estate market, coworking segment is undergoing another transformation. Coworking spaces are now moving into malls and five-star hotels.
Coworking spaces began with a café model and went on to embrace high-tech office model, low-cost to extremely high-cost options. Now, this space is witnessing a change again with more and more coworking firms opening their new spaces in malls and hotels.
For instance, Awfis now has centres at the Taj Deccan in Hyderabad, Nucleus Mall in Pune and Raghuleela Mall in Vashi. On the same lines, The Hive is reportedly setting up spaces at malls and shopping centres in Gurugram, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Also, Luxembourg-based International Workplace Group (IWG) has seven centres in various shopping complexes across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Chennai.
“There are several perks in having workspaces in malls and hotels,” Ankit Samdariya, CEO of The Hive, told HT. “You get everything in one place — a desk, a movie, shopping at the stores and food from the food court.”
Samdariya further added that in such a model, they also get in-built security services and maintenance taken care of. Also, rents are lower in malls that have unused spaces. Not to miss the ample parking facility.
End-users, which in this segment mainly comprises of young professionals in SMEs, entrepreneurs and freelancers, is also loving the idea of having an office in a mall. Such a concept not only provides a vibrant environment but also come with its own extra added benefits.
The model seems to be a winner in every front. Not only coworking firms get a great option in established infrastructure, but malls also get steady rent from the spaces that are less popular among retailers.
With over 90 new shopping malls expected to come up by 2022 across the cities, as per this JLL report, such mixed use of malls is expected and will work well for the real estate sector.