With more companies and workers looking toward flexible workspaces, co-working facilities continue to pop up across the city. Below Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan, for example, there are nearly four dozen, including usual suspects like WeWork and Knotel, as well as Downtown Alliance’s LMHQ.
LMHQ reinvented itself from co-working setup Hive at 55 when it moved to a 12,500-square-foot space at 150 Broadway in 2015 and is now “co-working adjacent,” said Tracy Candido, director of programs and events, “because somebody like a WeWork would give you an office, a dedicated desk like a regular office, which is wonderful. LMHQ is different in that we can expand and contract the way you need us to.”
On any given day, you might see LMHQ members sitting at the open desks, hosting a meeting in rooms named after city innovators with ties to Lower Manhattan, attending a seminar in the 140-person event space, reading in the HarperCollins-stocked communal library or scribbling on the Ideapaint-covered walls.
“You’re also able to rent our space as a non-member, which a lot of co-working spaces are a little more exclusive,” Candido said. “We’re a bit more community-minded where you can come in and try our space, and if you’re interested in participating in a more frequent basis, membership may be the right option for you.”
LMHQ memberships run the gamut from a $30 daily drop-in to $2,250 annually, which gives unlimited access to the workspace, credits and discounts on conference and event room rentals and more. LMHQ currently has 14 company and 31 individual members.
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Work, learning and networking at heart of LMHQ
LMHQ offers public programming such as a monthly women’s breakfast that’s attended by more than 120 professionals, as well as workshops and events related to the current news cycle.
“We try to curate programs that not only inform but also inspire and educate,” she said. “We try to give people things they need in their professional life, and of course that streamlines into their personal life as well.”
On Thursday at 6 p.m., change-making musician JD Samson, Tanenbaum Deputy CEO Mark Fowler and Nylon Editor-in-Chief Gabrielle Korn will host TED-like talks on working together in a tumultuous time, which will be “followed by a structured networking on the same topic of collaboration,” Candido said.
On Tuesday, Oct. 23, a special installment of the LMHQ women’s breakfast will be a free “voter’s town hall” featuring ZigZag Podcast, Civil, Christine Quinn of Win: Women in Need, the 21 in ’21 Initiative, Crush the Midterms, Make the Road and Cody Lindquist of Two Beers In.
“There are a lot of issues on the table that I think people know a lot about, but also there are a ton of nonprofit organizations who are fighting so hard to get the word out how to make change relevant to this issues,” Candido explained. “It will be a rapid-fire town hall with five- to 10-minute presentations.”
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