Coworking provider Loading Dock charts expansion in Wake Forest and West Raleigh
Loading Dock, one of Raleigh’s largest homegrown providers of coworking space, has plans to add two new locations across Wake County.
The company, which provides flexible office space and resources for entrepreneurs, will open in Wake Forest and in western Raleigh, giving it five locations in total, said Clark Rinehart, director of community at Loading Dock.
Loading Dock already has locations off Atlantic Avenue and in the Glenwood South and Prince Hall neighborhoods.
The goal of the expansion is to continue to fill in the geographic gaps in coworking options in Wake County, as most of the current options are in downtown Raleigh. With more areas able to access a coworking space, Loading Dock believes there should be fewer barriers to people becoming entrepreneurs.
“I want to see other parts of the community have those types of services” that coworking spaces provide, Rinehart said in a phone interview.
The Wake Forest location, specifically, is meant to provide much needed space in a growing part of northern Wake County. Between 2010 and 2018, Wake Forest grew from 30,354 people to 44,046 — an increase of 45%, The News & Observer previously reported.
“We have a lot of people coming from North Raleigh and Wake Forest to the flagship location” off Atlantic Avenue, Rinehart said. “There has to be a better way to do that connected work. This is the first stab at that project.”
Coworking spaces have grown in popularity in recent years with companies and freelance workers who don’t want to commit to long-term leases. In Loading Dock’s case, users can work out of all their offices around the city for a flat rate. Memberships range from $75-a-month passes for limited access to $900 a month for a dedicated office suite.
In Wake Forest, Loading Dock will retrofit an old downtown warehouse. The building, at 525 S. White St., will offer coworking and event space and potentially a small food hall. Rinehart said the space won’t just be targeted towards people with tech jobs, but also small business owners and people working in retail and consumer goods.
To support the venture, the Town of Wake Forest will be the first tenant. Last month, it agreed to let the Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership lease long-term space there for $65,000. That prepaid lease will help Loading Dock and the owner of the building invest $3 million into transforming the space.
Jason Cannon, president of the Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership, said for the past two years the town has been looking for a way to create more options for local entrepreneurs downtown.
“One of the things we recognized is that we have a lot of entrepreneurs that are using coffee shops and bonus rooms,” Cannon said in a phone interview. “They have great creative ideas and energy, but don’t have a great place to coordinate with each other.”
The town expects that when it is fully built out, the space could support 120 to 150 jobs, Cannon said. As an added benefit, the workers there could provide daytime business for the restaurants and shops in downtown Wake Forest, which are mostly active in the evenings.
Cannon said the town talked with four coworking providers before choosing Loading Dock.
“They did a really good job of vetting,” Rinehart said. “It was a slow methodical process. There were times where I wasn’t sure we were going to be picked.”
The space is expected to be ready in spring 2021.
Loading Dock is also currently retrofitting another former warehouse near Meredith College at 3915 Beryl Road.
That location is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Like other Loading Dock locations, it will offer flexible office and meeting space.
However, this space will also add what Rinehart called “co-warehousing” space, which could be used, for example, to hold products and inventory for consumer-goods startups.
A lot of Loading Dock tenants have asked for that service, but nobody in the Triangle was offering it yet, Rinehart said.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
