Co-work space for more than startups

Shared work space is becoming more popular in China, and developers are trying to find ways to attract more companies at different growth stages and not just startups.

“We hope to become a business solution provider for our customers, and we can help them at different growth stages,” said Justin Chen, deputy CEO of Arcc Spaces, a Singapore-based real estate developer.

“Co-work space should be flexible to support open thinking, networking and collaboration, while it should create a sense of belongings to attract professionals of similar nature together,” Chen said.

Arcc Spaces has 20 properties in six of Asia’s key cities: Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Yangon. It has just unveiled a workspace in Shanghai’s Taikang Insurance Tower in the Pudong Financial Square of the Lujiazui area.

“This new workspace best meets the demand of companies in the financial sector,” Chen said.

Arcc Spaces is able to understand first-hand the evolving expectations and demands of a workplace by sharing in the business aspirations of members, Chen said.

So it can embrace the concepts to facilitate collaboration and exchanges between people in a dynamic economy, he added.

Bolstered by the country’s urbanization and industrial transformation, China’s co-working and smart working technology sectors have strong growth potential. By 2020, more than 42 million square meters of space in Grade A office buildings in key cities such as Beijing and Shanghai will move toward office sharing, according to real estate service firm Jones Lang LaSalle.