Houston Expands Inclusive Coworking Options for Entrepreneurs in Historic Downtown Building
Entrepreneurs, small company owners and enterprise businesses are being welcomed into a nearly century-old building in downtown Houston that offers them a fresh chance to experiment outside of conventional office facilities.
Located in the Niels Esperson Building — a prominent landmark in Houston’s skyline since its founding in 1927 — Esperson Flex is a coworking concept that offers different membership tiers in its facilities, which include private offices, desk space, a conference room and access to the entire area for independent contractors. Furthermore, through The Cannon Community, members will have the ability to connect with other entrepreneurs as an add-on to their membership.
Dougal Cameron, Cameron Management’s CEO, said the following to InnovationMap: “Coworking allows small entrepreneurs to have a community and startup ecosystem that is very cheap and very flexible. They can invest money in their enterprise, instead of signing expensive, long leases.”
Members of Esperson also enjoy access to Cannon Connect, The Cannon’s digital platform that offers tools, services, and connections to investors, businesspersons, startups and small enterprises.
The venue currently has 12,300 square feet available, 62% of which is rented. According to Cameron, the company intends to increase the coworking space to 62,000 square feet throughout the next five years. And, with the support of Esperson and Cameron Management, seven groups are expanding their own coworking spaces. Among them are some that directly target underrepresented communities, such as Black, Hispanic and female entrepreneurs. For example, The Us Space is a collective that supports coworking opportunities for women of color in the area.
“We believe that entrepreneurship is the answer to many important problems in our world,” said Dougal Cameron.
Additionally, the operator collaborates with the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a thorough reentry program designed to encourage individuals to make life changes.
The newest flexible workspace from Cannon — which also has facilities in the Energy Corridor; Houston Galleria; Galveston; The Woodlands; and, as of recently, Memorial — is located downtown at Esperson Flex.
Remote workers are using spaces like Esperson Flex more and more, and these spaces have been known to increase overall productivity. In fact, according to an Airtasker survey, remote workers worked 1.4 extra days per month, on average, compared to office workers, which equates to 16.8 extra days per year. Additionally, according to 43% of respondents to the Gartner 2021 Digital Worker Experience Survey, having flexible working hours increased their productivity.
