Co-working Spaces are Driving Cardiff’s Economic Growth

When Desg opened the doors on its first office space in Penhill Road, Pontcanna, it was to create an environment that we wanted to work in.

A space that would have the amenities that we would want, such as break out rooms to have meetings/make calls, offices with room to grow, a place to make connections with other businesses and somewhere to create a real community – oh, and we wanted a bar, a gym and a really good coffee machine! So, in essence, that’s what we did.

Five years on, and with a global pandemic behind us, many aspects of the commercial office market have changed, which has resulted in a significant amount of empty office space across our city. It’s not all doom and gloom, there has been significant investment to parts of our city, but just walk through some parts of the ‘traditional’ commercial city centre hotspots, and the view is littered with sales and lettings signs. The way people work has transformed dramatically, and offices are having to adapt to these changes.

More people, and businesses, are seeking out adaptable, engaging and collaborative work environments that support productivity. Workers want more than an empty white box, grey carpets, with some desks and chairs. They want spaces that inspire and excite, where employees want to spend time and feel valued in. At Desg, we offer co-working membership and serviced offices, and because of the way the Desg buildings are set up we have seen these ways of working marry together, encouraging collaboration, creating a sense of community, belonging and camaraderie.

Location, as it always has been, is crucial. Our original Desg in Penhill Road offers café culture and park life, with Pontcanna fields and the village shops just around the corner, while our new Desg space at Park Place offers easy city centre access, with Queen Street train station just a short walk away. Different locations appeal to different types of businesses and co-workers, and by offering a few choices to our co-working members, they can get the best of both worlds.

But the key thing which we have found has often been critical to our tenants and members is flexibility. Again, we go back to when we started our various businesses and we asked ourselves, as small to medium business owners, what do we want from an office space? The answer was flexible space and flexible terms.

The idea of committing to a long-term lease in a traditional office space can be daunting for small businesses and new starters. For some, getting to grips with costs per square metre, service charge, business rates, as well as phones, wi-fi, utilities can be overwhelming. Furthermore, having to deal with dilapidations claims upon exit can be costly and cumbersome.

For us, eliminating that administrative headache and offering an all-in price, which is clear and simple for individuals and businesses to understand has been more attractive. The same

with the co-working, easy membership structure allows people to plan, budget and work accordingly – with flexible and straightforward contract terms.

Many co-working spaces are filled with start ups and micro businesses, and of course, we have our fair share of those, but we also have many well established, decades old businesses and co-working members at Desgs across the city. The co-working model has moved on. It is now used by those who have a hybrid job for London firms but prefer to have an office base away from home, or those who work with colleagues from a Desg space, but have their headquarters in Swansea. The variety of our tenants and members is vast and has been encouraging to see.

Operating in the commercial office space is not without its challenges at the moment. Office uptake in recent years has slowed, and there are plenty of commercial landlords with empty space and on the hook for increasing rates and costs. Developing these traditional offices spaces for serviced or co-working offering is a punt, but is one that many commercial landlords are taking because it is proving to be attractive to many occupiers.

We are both big advocates of getting the workforce back into offices. There are the obvious benefits of in-person collaboration, cohesion, company culture, which is important for many businesses. But perhaps more significantly, the ancillary benefits to the local economy. Whether that’s supporting nearby cafes, restaurants, bars, retail, or the benefits to broader business ecosystems through networking opportunities and company visibility.

It's encouraging that much of the feedback we get from our tenants and members is in line with the vision that Desg originally had. And that the spaces we are offering businesses and individuals are places where people actually enjoy coming into the office. They enjoy working in our buildings, they enjoy being a member of our community and that’s a great thing to be a part of.

Miles Davies is co-owner alongside Ross Hooper-Nash of co-working and serviced office space Desg, which has four offices around Cardiff.