Original Article via Phoenix Business Journal
Phoenix-based co-working space Co+Hoots is spreading its wings and expanding to downtown Mesa as part of the planned $60 million Grid mixed-use development.
The second Co+Hoots space will be in a 13,500-square-foot nest at a project that has yet to break ground but one that promises restaurants, offices and 500 new residents along downtown Mesa’s Main Street.
Mesa Mayor John Giles made the announcement at his State of the City breakfast address Feb. 6.
The new co-working space, at 233 E. Main St., has a planned fall 2019 opening, said Co+Hoots founder Jenny Poon.
“We believe in the city of Mesa’s commitment to transforming its downtown into a vibrant urban core,” Poon said. “We love downtown Mesa’s already hyper-localized community and believe a Co+Hoots location that will reflect downtown Mesa’s distinctive personality will be a great fit. Among many of our goals, the Mesa location will support and bring together the area’s entrepreneurial, startup and small business community, create jobs, provide free business and technology education through our nonprofit Co+Hoots Foundation, and become a major economic driver for Mesa.”
Jenny Poon is the founder of Co+Hoots co-working space in Phoenix (Photo from the Phoenix Business Journal).
The move is not surprising since Poon was on a panel Jan. 18 to talk about the rise of Mesa’s innovation district.
The Grid is considered a key piece to Mesa’s plans to invigorate its downtown. The project is planned to include a seven-story, mixed-use building, five three-story row homes, and a three-level parking garage. It’s also planned to include four stories of apartments above the Pomeroy parking garage and an additional 10 three-story row homes.
The project will have 270 apartments, 15 row homes and 20,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.
Palladium Enterprises, a new entity from Scottsdale-based 3W Management, is developing the project.
“We believe that bringing Co+Hoots into the Grid is a game changer for the downtown Mesa business community,” said Palladium Enterprises Manager Tony Wall. “We are collaborative developers, and we believe in downtown Mesa. Co+Hoots has joined us in this belief and this tremendous collaboration.”
Co+Hoots co-working space opened in a new, larger midtown Phoenix location in April 2016 (Photo from the Phoenix Business Journal).
The Grid will be built next to Benedictine University, a Chicago-based Catholic university with a downtown Mesa campus.
Co+Hoots and Benedictine University will create a new entrepreneurial business program that will provide Benedictine exclusive students mentorship, internships and discounted memberships among other advantages, Poon said.
Through this collaboration, Co+Hoots will be able to support individuals’ entrepreneurial journey from high school to college to startup success in Mesa, she said.
“This is a big deal,” Giles said. “We are thrilled to be welcoming Co+Hoots and the Grid to downtown Mesa. With hundreds of new residents living at the Grid, Co+Hoots cultivating a new co-working community, and Benedictine University at Mesa students gaining insight into entrepreneurship, soon downtown Mesa will be known as a dynamic and well-balanced community that thrives on innovation.”
Co+Hoots was ranked fourth among the best co-working spaces in the U.S. in May 2017, according to Inc. magazine.
Poon, who was named the 2016 Phoenix Business Journal’s Businessperson of the Year, opened the first co-working space in downtown Phoenix in 2010.
In May 2016, Poon and her husband and business partner Odeen Domingo bought a midtown building and opened a new and larger Co+Hoots space, which now houses 170 companies.
The 14,000-square-foot building at 221 E. Indianola Ave. is three times the size of Co+Hoots’ former downtown Phoenix space on Washington Street.
