Serendipity Labs, the national operator of coworking spaces headquartered in Rye, will open its second Fairfield County location in Westport, probably in January.
In an interview with the Business Journal, Serendipity CEO and Chairman John Arenas said the move was in keeping with the company”™s local strategy of “working our way up the Metro-North line ”” Rye, Stamford and Westport.”
The Westport facility will take up “a floor and a bit” of 55 Boston Post Road West, totaling about 21,000 square feet or about 30% of the available space, Arenas said. The building is owned by ClearRock Properties ”” which also owns Serendipity”™s Stamford location at 700 Canal St. ”” in the kind of “managed franchise” model that has been popular in other sectors, he said.
The town was chosen “because the commute times are long in Westport, incomes and education levels are high and the available alternatives in other locations were really just legacy executive suites,” Arenas said.
The new office will be staffed by “a handful” of employees and can hold up to 180 people who can use it as an adjunct space, to avoid a long commute, work on their own or put their whole team there, Arenas said.
Serendipity has been steadily expanding since its founding in 2012, having added White Plains, Kansas City and Charlotte over the past couple of weeks. Arenas said the company should end this year with about 40 offices and add another 25 in 2020.
“We could ramp up and go faster,” he mused, “but we”™re not going to grow for growth”™s sake. We”™re careful in picking our locations and timing.”
Attention will remain mainly on the suburbs, Arenas said, with the idea being that those living and working in major cities would have less use for an off-site space.
Arenas said, “a number of other locations in the area are under consideration. Bridgeport is one place we”™re looking at and New Haven is also on our target list.”
