The arrival of co-working space Hub Anzac Square sees a huge boost in Brisbane’s shared work spaces

THE co-working workspace revolution has well and truly arrived in Brisbane with a major player signing a long term lease in the CBD.

Hub chief executive and founder Brad Krauskopf at 200 Adelaide st in the Brisbane CBD.

THE co-working workspace revolution has well and truly arrived in Brisbane with Hub Australia securing its first site in the CBD.

The company has a 10-year lease on 3900sq m in Charter Hall’s Anzac Square building at 200 Adelaide St and follows Christie Spaces securing 3501sq m of refurbished space at 240 Queen St last year.

Also, New York-based co-working giant WeWork has announced Brisbane will be the focus of its next Australian location while other smaller players have taken significant space and there are more on the way.

Hub Australia’s Brisbane site will open late this year and has taken the company’s national footprint to more than 20,000sq m.

Hub Australia chief executive Brad Krauskopf, who founded the company in 2010, said demand for co-working space – which includes other flexible office space options such as serviced and incubator offerings – has “exploded” over the past couple of years.

“What’s happened is that co-working has moved from just being about flexible workspace to also about ‘how do we grow our business’,” he said.

“As businesses grow they want to have a private office but also be part of something bigger and at Anzac Square we’ll have offices for two to 20 people but also dedicated and flexible desks in the open.”

The deal was struck by CBRE’s Chris Butters who represented Charter Hall and Hub Australia’s representative Deloitte Real Estates’ Phil Windus.

According to Knight Frank co-working space across Australia has grown by 62 per cent in the 12 months to September and 300 per cent since 2013. Melbourne accounts for almost 50 per cent of the total volume across Australia, followed by Sydney 38 per cent, Adelaide 5.38 per cent, Brisbane 3.51 per cent and Perth 3.49 per cent.

However, Brisbane has room to grow. Hub Australia chief property officer John Preece said the Queensland capital was home to 11 per cent of Australia’s city based population and 13 per cent of the national CBD office stock.

“That tells us the market is completely under serviced from a capacity perspective and there is definitely demand for high quality co-working spaces,” he said.

Mr Preece said new generation Hub Australia sites featured state-of-the-art architectural design and facilities including hi-tech meeting and event spaces, media studio, gymnasium, end-of-trip facilities with towel service, relaxation spaces, parents room, and parking.

“The new Brisbane space, Hub Anzac Square, will definitely set the bar for quality and amenity for co-working space in Brisbane, and we have a great opportunity to create a rooftop terrace and covered cafe which will be spectacular,” he said.