1776 will close its Washington Square campus this fall

Coworking company 1776, which has locations across the Philly region, in New Jersey and in D.C., will be closing its Washington Square West location at the end of October, a company executive told Technical.ly.

CEO Jennifer Maher visited the location Thursday to meet individually with the companies and members who use the 10,000-square-foot space. Members will have to be out Oct. 31, but will have the opportunity to move to one of the nearby 1776 locations, including offices in Brewerytown, Rittenhouse, Pennovation or Cherry Hill, Maher said.

Earlier this year, 1776 closed a coworking space in University City and opened its Brewerytown location, and then did the same in D.C., shutting down its Crystal City campus and setting up shop in the McPherson Square area near the White House.

The company said in February it is moving away from signing leases and focusing on partnering with asset owners in a management capacity.

It’s the same case with the Washington Square location, Maher said: The lease was up at The Curtis, which is owned by Keystone Property Group. Keystone did not answer a request for a comment.

Most members are commuting to the Washington Square location, Maher said.

“It’s not an office where you have a lot of people living in the neighborhood,” she said. “And hopefully one of our other campuses is convenient for them.”

Currently, about 25 companies have their home base at the Washington Square location — including, full disclosure, us here at Technically Media, as well as tech-related orgs such as Philly Startup Leaders and Fishtown Analytics. Six companies have a private office, while others use a mix of designated desk space and “hot desks.” Some companies only have one employee working out of the space.

Maher did say that another Philadelphia location was on the horizon, but not until at least next year. There are plans for a location that could better host events and programing that the company runs year round at its various locations.

“There is growth in the future, we still have a solid footprint here,” Maher said. “We are still very committed to the entrepreneurship ecosystem here in the greater Philadelphia area.”

As of earlier this summer, Philadelphia hit more than 1.1 million square feet of dedicated to coworking, according to a Philadelphia Business Journal report. Other recent shared-workspace moves include REC Philly’s development of a 10,000-square-feet space in the Fashion District and the announcement of WeWork’s forthcoming fifth location in Philly, at 11th and Ludlow.