Page 18 - BusinessWest March 31, 2021

Weathering the Storm
Co-working Spaces See Opportunities Beyond the Pandemic
SBy Joseph Bednar
ince launching Click Workspace a decade ago, Mary Yun has seen nothing but growth in one of the region’s first co-
working ventures.
“We’re finding, now that the vaccine is being distributed and the sun is shining, so to speak, we’re getting a surge of new interest recently as people are starting to feel more comfortable coming back into the world. People are sick of working from home.”
That growth led her to abandon her original 1,000-square-foot facility in 2015 and develop a 9,000-square-foot building in downtown Northampton, which, at its peak prior to the pandemic, hosted 80 members and a host of community arts and cultural events.
“That was a good number for us, where we could operate with a full- time member advocate and myself as executive director overseeing all the operations and also work- ing on events,” she said. “We’re mission-driven, bringing in the commu- nity through art shows and music; that was my wheelhouse.”
With 80 members, all the private offices and dedicated desks were filled, as was the shared open space, for the most part, while a meeting room holding 24 people was regularly put to use by the community. In short, Click was ... well, clicking.
And then COVID-19 arrived.
“When the closures happened, we closed down like all businesses, and we still had mem- bers supporting us, paying their monthly dues
Ned Barowsky says flexible leases, as offered in the co-working world, will be more in demand in the future, and rigid, long-term leases less so.
for a while. We had members who were now working remotely from home,” Yun said.
But the erosion began almost immediately. “We had always maintained a good number of
A Welcome Addition to
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Cecille is a 2016 graduate of Bay Path University with an BS in Business Administration. She has more than 20+ years of experience in the newspaper advertising industry. She began her career at the Los Angeles Times and after returning to the east coast she accepted an inside sales position with the Morning Union/Daily News. Cecille worked her way up to becoming the assistant classified manager at The Republican 1986.
She expanded her sales perspective as an Outside Sales business consultant with the Valley Advocate and most recently worked on the printing side of the newspaper business as the Sales & Printing Coordinator with the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Cecille brings a depth of experience and knowledge from her extensive career in publishing. BusinessWest & Healthcare News are confident that Cecille’s experience
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18 MARCH 31, 2021
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