Today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined the city’s plans to boost the media industry in NYC in a variety of ways as part of MediaNYC 2020, which was originally announced in February.

Most notable and relevant to us, of course, is the effort to build a “Hive” space for independent media makers and other independent workers. The overlap with our ongoing efforts with New Work City and the Runway Project is obvious, so seeing the city make an increasing effort in this area is exciting for us. This, in combination with the city’s announced efforts earlier this year at fostering entrepreneurial growth, is beginning to add up to a real, noticeable effort on the part of the Mayor’s Office, the EDC, and others to foster healthy entrepreneurial growth in the city.

Creating an entrepreneur-friendly ecosystem

Effective spaces do two things: they help new businesses get connected and grow, and they provide a fertile ground for new partnerships to be discovered an evolve. We’ve already seen that progress in our community, where members have formed partnerships to start new initiatives such as LaidOffCamp and Zeitheist, among others. Freelancers, too, have found work in meeting and working alongside their colleagues, and through referrals that we pass along.

Our members also started and run the Runway Project, a community-driven education effort aimed toward people starting new businesses in the wake of the recession, and have helped dozens of newly independent New Yorkers get connected, educated, and on their feet in short order. All of this has sprung out of an environment designed to facilitate this sort of healthy activity.

Creating Sustainable Entrepreneurial Growth

The main challenge to establishing city-sponsored workspaces has been the fact that they have been historically temporary– reliant on below-market leases during bad markets which, when the markets rebound and prices go up, end up folding without external support.

At New Work City, we’ve been making lots of progress toward sustainability on our own. Our aim is to strike the balance between keeping membership rates low enough so as to be accessible to early-stage businesses and independent workers, while still maintaining enough cash flow to run a profitable business that gets everything at fair market rate.

For the new efforts the city is making in establishing spaces, my hope is that any new spaces that are established are done so in a way that creates long-term, sustainable economic growth. That means not relying on subsidy but on a sound business model that will survive tidal changes in economics and politics.

With the city increasing its emphasis on new and small businesses, I look forward to helping the city find ways to create this healthy growth in a city that is very much ready to take its place as a friendly place to be an entrepreneur.

Our Small Business Services agency and our Economic Development Corporation will work together to help laid-off workers connect to start-ups and small firms in other industries by launching new job-training programs.

“They’ll also partner with private foundations to create ‘entrepreneur boot camps’ for all those interested in starting their own companies. And when the aspiring entrepreneurs are ready to take the next step, we’ll help them find office space. Right now, many landlords face rising levels of vacancies. But a number of academic institutions see value in those vacancies, and are interested in creating incubator space for new start-ups. By connecting these two groups, we can fill vacant commercial space and help launch start-ups that may have come up with the next big thing. 

“We’ll stimulate entrepreneurship in other ways, too. For instance, we’ll provide additional seed funding to high-tech start-ups. Right now, across the whole city, only $40 million in private money is being spent on this kind of ‘angel’ investing and yet there is a huge demand for it. So our Economic Development Corporation will find $3 million in its budget to attract new private angel investors. That will allow us to increase the pool of available financing by $10 million net – a 25 percent increase.”

New Work City stands ready to help in any way it can to help. We are already working on our own recession-busting program, and will be calling for you to help us. Let us know if you want to participate early on!

I believe strongly that, even in difficult economic times, if you find a way to provide something of value that people will pay for, you will propser. The more we can help each other find ways to value, the more we will all benefit– as a community, as a city, and as a nation.

That’s right! After a long year of figuring out the business model, building interest, and looking at space after space, we’ve finally arrived at 200 Varick Street!

We’ll be sharing the space with element^n, who have graciously given us a very flexible deal and a chance to get on our feet.

The building has lots of other young, creative companies in it, and will be a great environment. The entrance, hallways, and elevator have all been recently renovated and look great (there’s even an LCD screen in the elevator!).

The neighborhood is great, with tons of restaurants, cafes, bars, and little parks to explore. Adjacent to 200 Varick is SOB’s, a famous latin dance club. On the other side, Chipotle. The cafe downstairs, attached to the entrance, is Deb’s. It pumps in salsa music nonstop and has wifi.

We’ll be getting the first set of keys this week, and will be able to do tours in the next couple of days, but our official occupation date will be November 1st. There’s a whole lot to be done between now and then, including a trip to Ikea, signing up the first members, and, of course, a launch party.

Stay tuned right here for updates on all that and so much more.

We never would have made it this far without your continued support and excitement— both here in NYC, and around the world. As we move forward, New Work City will continue to be shaped by your needs and your input. It’s here because you want it to be here, and will continue to exist to serve your needs.

The workplace is changing, fast. The twentieth-century office enviroment is on its way out, and a newer, better, greener, happier, more productive workplace is taking its place.

The new workplace is everywhere. It’s in coworking spaces, cafes, parks, at home and elsewhere, and we all get to be a part of it.

This is the new way of doing work.

Welcome to New Work City!