Co-working site part bureau, part boardwalk
Montreal hub has space for workers, businesses to discover new partners
MONTREAL— In an empty Montreal lot sandwiched between a building filled with studios for creative types and railway tracks, something strange and beautiful has bloomed.
City zoning laws classify the land as a park, but for five months this summer it is being transformed into a free, openair co-working site complete with a bar, bocce courts, beanbags and a stage.
It is Montreal’s whimsical take on the growing trend for freelancers, startups and small businesses opting to work out of communal office space. It is part bureau, part boardwalk.
“We noticed this empty patch of unused land that had loads of sun and where people came to eat their lunch sitting on concrete blocks,” said Emilie Wake, one of the six co-founders of Aire Commune, a project funded through a city grant, corporate sponsorships and the sale of food and beverages.
“It’s in a Montreal style, but independent workers are growing all over the world. People need space to work, co-working spaces are quite expensive and they don’t respond to everyone’s needs.”
On a recent visit, several dozen people sat at picnic tables with parasols, some eating lunch, others pecking away at laptop computers. Meanwhile, another group of people were holding a business meeting in a remodelled shipping container set up with tables and chairs.
Just behind, on the fake grass, a large group had gathered for a noon-hour conference on marketing strategies delivered by the head of a company whose offices are located in the same Mile End neighbourhood. Later in the day, the turf would be cleared off for a yoga class.
“Yes, we have shows and entertainment, but the mission is to have a marriage between the people who work in the neighbourhood and the local businesses,” said Wake. “We wanted people to meet, discover potential partners and show their work.”
This objective is what has brought Scarlett Martinez and Émilie Carrier to the co-working site two or three times a week since it opened in May.
Martinez founded the marketing strategy company EVA last December. On this particular day, they came to the site to work during the day. But they planned to stay for an afterhours event — a sort of speeddating for start-up companies seeking financing, support and mentorship from an organization called PME MTL.
There are also practical reasons. Seats and tables in the cafés they might otherwise use to work are often already taken by the laptop-toting hordes by the time they arrive. Other coffee shops in the neighbourhood are turning away their kind.
“Two years ago it was easier. Now they’re removing the plugs,” said Martinez.
Wake and her partners in Ilot 84, the non-profit organization behind the co-working site, were part of the laptop-toting independent workers. They all have a background in the city’s thriving entertainment and festival circuits, whether it be with the summer music festival Piknik Electronic, the equestrian and acrobatic production Cavalia, Cirque du Soleil or Just For Laughs festival.
A few years ago, Ilot 84 organized a holiday-season initia- tive selling and delivering Christmas trees. One of their customers happened to be Marie Plourde, a popular Quebec television personality who was elected to the Plateau-MontRoyal neighbourhood council.
When the idea for the coworking project took shape, they knocked on her door.
Wake said the project may never have received approval without Plourde’s support.
“What I really like seeing are the partnerships that form between people that are more experienced and those who are just starting out,” she said.
A one-month pilot project in 2017 brought about 10,000 people to the site and convinced city officials that Aire Commune had merit. The goal this summer, armed with a $20,000 grant from the neighbourhood council, is for a fivefold increase in the number of visitors.
Plourde said it is also important that the site remains free and accessible to all.
This is possible due to corporate sponsorships. But while Lululemon sponsors the yoga classes, Jack Daniels logos appear on the grey beanbags, and Spaces, the for-profit co-working company, offers promotional pens and notebooks in one of the shipping container-meeting rooms, the corporate content remains discreet.
The only possible exception was when a particular brand of gin-and-tonic in a can was handed out free to those attending a lunch conference.
Organizers are now looking to expand to other cities, including Quebec City, Toronto and Vancouver in the coming years.
Wake sees no reason why the concept would not translate to other cities.
“It’s a particular situation that applies to nordic countries where we have few spaces adapted to the outdoors given our winters. We haven’t developed public spaces adapted for working, in contrast to places in Europe where there is Wi-Fi all throughout the city.”
Martinez and Carrier, of the marketing start-up company, had a large bottle of water chilling on ice as they worked face to face across a picnic table. Martinez said there was something special about working outside when the weather co-operates. Martinez had also read an article arguing that working outdoors, which she referred to as “green desking” actually increased creativity.
“There were some experts who weren’t 100 per cent in agreement, but it still feels good,” she said.
“We’re so often stuck inside that we can’t complain,” Carrier added, referring to the intense heat from the midday sun.