This is really about the lack of good shared hacker/working spaces. The nearest one is miles from where I live, not convenient to get to via public transportation and expensive. Meanwhile, Starbucks is a short walk down the street for $1.50 per cup of drip coffee. The demand is there, but the supply isn't. Starbucks fills that niche.
Would it be possible to create a space with a similarly casual and welcoming environment and charge hourly drop-in rates? Perhaps for a more broad audience than a typical co-working or hacker space. Something street-level perhaps that could attract walk-ins. What could it offer that a coffee shop can't?
The co-working spaces around Seattle offer a dedicated (professional looking) space for meetings wired up for tele/videoconferencing. Hell, even a coffee shop could offer those, with proper reservations and a small deposit. Sure, the ones here have "quiet rooms", but those aren't reservable, to my knowledge.
Definitely. Even when coworking spaces exist they're typically pretty expensive for what you get--which is usually just a desk, fast internet, and maybe free coffee. Bring the price down a little, or offer daily passes for $10-$20 (even that's pretty high considering you're competing with a $3 latte all-day-pass at Starbucks).
Alternatively I always suggest to people that they work at their local library. The Chicago suburbs for example have a superb library system, and nowadays you can even bring in closed drinks at some of them. Internet is fast, it's quiet by definition, and there's usually a fine amount of human activity around to keep you from feeling like you're alone in an office building.
The one I use[1] is startup-oriented, located right downtown (which is effectively the nexus of transit in this city), and has drop-in desks for $125/mo and full time desks for $275/mo, which I think is pretty reasonable. I definitely feel for people don't have something like it, it's pretty nice.
I agree, the freelance working space market must be extremely ripe right now, I wonder why supply has been so slow to increase? It should be obvious that the demand is very high just by visiting most wifi cafes, looking around, and seeing all of the freelancers and office-refugees.
I think because it's actually a pretty high risk proposition for property owners. It means a lot of unknown people coming and going through commercial (not retail) space and all the insurance, theft risk, vandalism risk kinds of concerns that come with that for a landlord. Usually in a city with a growing and vibrant tech industry less risky tenants can be gotten who will probably pay more.
