Coworking spaces in Montreal (Canada): Moving beyond classic location patterns

Abstract

Using location theory as a starting point, this paper aims to understand how coworking spaces (CSs) locate within the city and how they reacted to the stress of COVID-19. Through a case study of the city of Montreal (Canada), we show that most CSs locate in areas of high transit accessibility and in central districts, but there is a trend – possibly accelerated by COVID – towards more suburban locations. These location strategies follow logics similar to those of Knowledge intensive services (KIS), including the tendency of some to agglomerate and of others to disperse. For some CSs, there is also heightened sensitivity to interactions with, and contributions to, the local community. Hence, faced with COVID, CSs in transit-accessible places combine an inward strategy, centralizing their activities around members, with a networking strategy, pooling some services and developing partnerships with local or other nearby CSs. Furthermore, CSs in peri-central neighbourhoods are the most vulnerable and have adopted retraction strategies. In contrast, CSs located in low accessibility districts outside the agglomeration adopt an expansion strategy, opening new branches near suburban residential areas to attract nearby workers. As hybrid work evolves, these results can help urban planners better understand the location rationales of CSs, how they adapt, and to what extent they bring added value to local urban development.