Check out the new coworking space coming to Gowanus

On the second floor of 68 3rd St., people who work for a company that organizes scavenger hunts for private parties have just moved into a brand-new office. On the other side of their glass door, wires dangle from the ceiling and construction tools roar. Cowork|rs is putting the final touches on its first coworking space in Brooklyn, which will open August 1.
Cowork|rs opened its first location in Manhattan’s Flatiron District in November 2013. Less than two years later, the initial space is full, and there’s a six-month waiting list, Cowork|rs CEO Shlomo Silber said. Silber said that 10 to 12 companies have already signed on to come work at the new Gowanus location.
“I firmly believe this is the way of doing work,” Silber said.

Technical.ly Brooklyn toured the new space with Silber, which still needs some work before it can be opened to more people. Silber said he wants to contrast the colors of the old columns with pops of bright blue and bright pink.
“My job,” Silber said, is “making sure that those spaces are clean and nice, and there’s cool stuff for people to do.”
The work environment Cowork|rs wants to create in its Gowanus location is a little bit different than what you’d find in a typical office. Besides conference rooms, copiers and printers, people will also find TVs, a ping-pong table, and free beer on tap. “Our motto is: ‘At home at work,’” Silber said.
It’s a differentiating factor in an increasingly crowded (and well funded) field.

A diverse range of companies coexist at the Cowork|rs location on 23rd Street and Park Avenue South, from architects to coders to application developers.
Henry Lau works on an app that is designed to help roommates split rent. He worked in another coworking space in SoHo, but he decided to move to the Cowork|rs 23rd Street location, because he thought the space here was “better organized.” The amenities were a draw, too.
Robert Visnov, the founder and CEO of a company that builds digital products, has been here “pretty much since the beginning,” since the end of 2013. He particularly enjoyed the location, because it “was very close to a major client.” There is “a very nice library atmosphere,” he said, and he has met “a good set of people” over the months.

Cowork|rs is not done expanding. It plans on opening one more space in October and another one later on, both of which will be located in Manhattan’s Financial District.

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