Founders of Workzones, from front to back, Pam Tanase, Kirk Peacock, Lisa Riolo, and Mike Franco)
SANTA BARBARA — When four local entrepreneurs launched the coworking space Workzones in Santa Barbara just over a decade ago, the practice of working remotely was limited to a small subset of individuals and companies.
Ten years and one pandemic later, remote work – either partially or full-time – has become a common reality for millions of employees and business owners.
Pam Tanase and fellow entrepreneurs Kirk Peacock, Mike Franco and Lisa Riolo founded Workzones in March, 2013. At the time, they all ran small businesses from home but were frustrated with the arrangement. Their goal was to create an affordable, shared workspace with meeting and conference rooms where independent workers and businesspeople could enjoy the amenities and social opportunities of an office environment, without fixed leases and high overhead.
What began as a modest, 5,000-square-foot coworking facility has ballooned to an almost 15,000-square-foot building area due in large part to the success early-stage businesses founded by Workzones’ members had and flourished to the point that they outgrew the facility’s original footprint. These include Clearpath GPS, LoaTree and LoaCom, and Canndescent. Today, the space is filled with private offices, hybrid meeting rooms, board rooms, training rooms, team suites and event areas capable of accommodating individuals and groups of varying sizes to provide the work-space options needed for growth and engagement.
“More and more companies are scaling down their permanent office spaces and using businesses like Workzones to provide smaller-scale or temporary workstations for remote staff and utilizing conference rooms when the team needs to collaborate in person as needed,” said Workzones Cofounder Tanase. “We could not have imagined such a large shift to remote work when we began Workzones 10 years ago, but we’re finding that demand for flexible office space, meeting rooms, events and coworking options continues to increase.”
What Workzones has experienced is consistent with what Greg Bartholomew, a partner with Hayes Commercial Group, has observed.
“Many office tenants in downtown Santa Barbara have reduced their footprints over the past three years as employees have opted for remote or hybrid work,” Bartholomew said. “In this fluid and rapidly evolving situation, companies are seeking flexibility above all, which is usually not possible with a traditional office lease.”
To accommodate the increase in remote and hybrid work, Workzones has created new corporate membership plans. These memberships can be customized to include any combination of hourly, daily and monthly use of offices, meeting room reservations and coworking solutions for all of a company’s employees.
As the commercial office space industry adjusts to the new reality, Workzones is also seeing increased demand for access to large, creative spaces that can be used for gatherings, meetings, events and exhibitions. Workzones’ 1,000-square-foot event area, known as the Tower, has recently hosted professional networking groups, business lunch presentations and fashion design exhibitions.
“With vaulted ceilings framing the serene Paseo Nuevo courtyard, this was more than a venue – it was the launchpad for our dreams,” said Cara Austine, founder of Couture Pattern Museum, and a Workzones member. “The Tower was the perfect backdrop to four successful and heavily attended exhibitions that garnered local and international acclaim.”
Workzones is located at the Paseo Nuevo mall, inside a private, second-floor building. Members have access to a coworking space that includes a communal kitchen, café, business lounge and phone booths. Amenities offered are complimentary beverages, utilities, fast Wi-Fi, mail and concierge services, printing, scanning, and accommodation of corporate IT requirements. Meeting rooms for up to 75 people can be booked by the hour or day and include a white board, HDTV, conference phone, and technology to support hybrid meetings. Turn-key private offices can be rented by the day, month or longer. Monthly coworking plans are available with a 24/7 access option.
Monthly parking options are available, with the first 75 minutes of parking provided free. Hosted business hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but weekend and after-hours access can be arranged. Mall security personnel provide round-the-clock safety.
— Workzones is located at 351 Paseo Nuevo, 2nd Floor, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101. For more information visit https://workzones.com/, email host@workzones.com host