And that's two for Startway in Marseille. Within a few weeks of each other, this coworking specialist will have opened two spaces in the city of Marseille. As is often the case at Startway, whose partner is the La Poste group, one of these developments involves the conversion of dedicated premises into new-generation workspaces. In this case, the former Colbert post office, located five minutes from Saint Charles station and close to the Old Port, has become Startway Marseille Colbert.
Also in the heart of Marseille, just a stone's throw from the Vieux Port, Startway has opened a second coworking space near the prefecture and Rue Paradis and Rue Saint Ferréol. Starway Marseille Vieux Port Préfecture is housed in a completely renovated town house, and offers over 1,200 sq. m. of workstations, as well as friendly, communal spaces. a beautiful terrace, for pleasant, sunny breaks.
" Startway is stepping up its regional development and believes in the strong appeal of the Aix Marseille Provence Metropolis" said Eric Martin, CEO of Startway. Just as Startway, Newton Offices is capitalising on the economic dynamism of the city to develop its offering. Already established in Marseille's booming La Joliette business district, this commercial property specialist has just opened a new site just five minutes from Aix-en-Provence TGV stationeasily accessible from the city centre or Marseille Provence airport.
Set in the lush greenery of the Les Milles golf course, the new Newton space is located in the heart of the city. new building with 5,320 m2 of private offices and four meeting rooms for 12 to 35 people. There's also a wellness room, a gym with changing rooms and showers, and a dining room with a large terrace overlooking the golf course.
Already well established in the south of France, in Montpellier, Marseille and Aix, Newton Offices is also heading north with a new site in Villeneuve d'Ascq, just 15 minutes from the centre of Lille and the Lille Flandres TGV station. Located in the green technology park, Parc Racine², Newton Haute Borne offers 310 workstations over almost 5,000 m2. And, as in Aix-en-Provence, the site combines work and relaxation, with four meeting rooms and plenty of rest areas, all set in a natural environment planted with trees. An attractive environment for businesses and their staff under house arrest in recent months.
" The crisis has revealed trendsThe Group's flexible workspace solutions, accelerating the conversion of major groups to flexible workspace solutions" says Guillaume Pellegrin, founder of Newton Offices. In view of this development, the specialist is already planning to open several new offices in the regions, in Lyon next June, then in Nice in 2022, in the Grand Arenas business district, and again in Marseille, before moving north again in 2023, to Marc-en-Baroeul.
France's major cities offer potential that IWG, the world leader with 3,400 business centres under the Regus, Spaces, HQ, Signature by Regus and Stop&Work banners, also intends to exploit. Its network in France currently comprises 126 centres in 76 cities, two-thirds of its supply is concentrated in the Paris region. Christophe Burckart, Managing Director of IWG France, describes the outlook for his group as follows: " In addition to strengthening our presence in all the cities where we are already present, we are giving giving priority to the regional development of our network in order to reach as many local areas as possible. Our mission is to bring the workplace closer to residential areas, while offering a sustainable alternative to working from home." .
Of the twenty or so sites opened by IWG over the last three years in the French regions, more than half have been in suburban areas, such as a centre in Ramonville-Saint-Agne, on the outskirts of Toulouse, which opened on 15 April. This trend could accelerate in the future, as demand for office space increased by 32 % in suburban areas and by 20 % in rural areas in the first quarter of 2021, compared with the same period pre-Covid. Conversely, interest in this type of space in city centres has fallen by 11 1Q3T, according to IWG data. Among the next openings planned by IWG in the regions are a centre in a historic building in Toulouse next June, a space in Nice in the autumn, and a Stop&Work centre in Paris-Saclay, at the heart of Europe's leading technology cluster.
