Zachary Weinberger, a partner at Sprout CoWorking LLC, spoke recently to the Providence Business News about the expansion of the Providence company into a new location in Warren. The coworking space attracts members who use it for a variety of needs, including conferences or office amenities.
PBN: What is Sprout CoWorking and why have you expanded to Warren?
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WEINBERGER: Sprout CoWorking is a growing business that provides professional work and meeting spaces, local addresses in support of business presence and event space to anyone who needs or wants these services. We offer services on a monthly membership basis, on a daily basis or on an hourly basis depending on our clients’ needs. Most memberships include 24/7 access to the workspace, which comes with high-speed Wi-Fi, courtesy printing, coffee, tea, etc., use of the kitchen, and a bundle of meeting room hours as well.
We offer a beautifully renovated mill building with 20-foot ceilings, huge windows that bathe the space in natural light, easy access to nearby catering and lots of free off-street parking. After opening in Providence three years ago, we recently opened a new location in Warren to meet the coworking needs of Barrington, Warren, Bristol and the surrounding areas.
PBN: Where are you located in Warren and [can you] describe the facilities there?
WEINBERGER: Our new Warren location is at 489 Main St., on the corner of State Street. We are … across from the Warren Town Hall and surrounded by great restaurants and shops. In Warren, we have three meeting rooms, two private offices and flexible workspace for 30 people. We can also host a variety of events and meetings. Some past events have included meetings of the local historical society, [Rhode Island State Council on the Arts] and a local holiday concert. The space has lots of natural light, is beautiful, airy and very comfortable.
PBN: Where are you located in Providence, and how has that business grown since it opened?
WEINBERGER: Our Providence location is on the Rising Sun Mills campus at 166 Valley St. We have doubled in size since we first opened. We now have five meeting rooms that can accommodate from two to 20 people. We also have a major event space that can fit up to 100 people for events ranging from a formal sit-down dinner to a presentation with theater-style seating to a job fair or anything else you can think of. In addition, we have 24 dedicated office spaces and 80 flexible work spaces.
In both locations we host a variety of social and/or educational programs for our members and the general public. These include events [such as] Free First Fridays, where anyone can come in for the day and try out coworking on the first Friday of every month, member breakfasts in our Providence location, frequent lunch-and-learn programs and many other activities.
PBN: What kinds of entrepreneurs, freelancers or small businesses are you attracting as regular members?
WEINBERGER: Sprout CoWorking members and users include all kinds of individuals and small companies/organizations. Many of our members are individual practice professionals [such as] attorneys and consultants. Others are freelance writers, graphic designers, software programmers and marketers. We also have a lot of remote workers whose employers are corporations that don’t have offices nearby. Some of these members are employees of major global companies. Small businesses that have membership at Sprout CoWorking include a medical-device startup, a well-established design firm with clients all over the world, solar energy companies, a mortgage company and a variety of [nonprofits]. We think of Sprout CoWorking as coworking for anyone.
PBN: Why do people who could, in theory, use a home office choose Sprout locations?
WEINBERGER: Many people with home offices choose a membership at Sprout CoWorking as well. We provide a formal local address so that when someone searches for the business, they find a professional-looking office building and not a private home. We also offer meeting rooms for periodic professional meetings. Sometimes people with a home office just need to get out of the house and be in a motivational environment where there are others working and where they can network for their business. They take advantage of our high-speed internet and printing services.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
