Industrious to bring coworking space to St. Petersburg’s tallest office tower

ST. PETERSBURG — Industrious announced plans Wednesday to open coworking offices in St. Petersburg’s tallest office building, the 28-story 200 Central tower.

Starting in early 2021, Industrious will offer nearly 37,000 square feet of space on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the tower, previously known as One Progress Plaza.

“This is exciting news for St. Pete as it aligns well with our needs,” St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said in a statement released through the company. "I expect Industrious will be popular here.”

Industrious already offers offices starting at $774 a month at the SunTrust Financial Centre tower in downtown Tampa and plans to open new coworking locations at Centro Ybor and Sparkman Wharf.

The St. Petersburg offices will expand the company’s footprint in the Tampa Bay area to more than 120,000 square feet.

Founded in 2013 and based in New York City, Industrious has tenants that range from startups to satellite offices of Fortune 500 companies at nearly 100 locations in more than 50 U.S. cities. The company likes the Tampa Bay area for its economic and population growth, according to president and co-founder Justin Stewart.

Industrious already is working with the tower’s owner, Third Lake Partners, on its project at Centro Ybor, which Third Lake also owns. Those offices are expected to open later this year.

The new space, called Industrious 200 Central, will help transform the tower with collaborative work spaces for tech and professional firms, Third Lake president and chief operating officer Robert Forsythe said.

Third Lake, a Tampa investment firm established by Ashley Furniture founder Ronald Wanek, bought 200 Central in 2017 and has since landed the headquarters of wealth management firm Dynasty Financial Partners.

In February, Third Lake proposed to coordinate a planned development of what is now a parking lot at the foot of the tower with the redevelopment of the nearby city of St. Petersburg Municipal Services Center. Doing the projects together, it said, would create a "stronger and more cohesive neighborhood experience” along Central Avenue.

Industrious plans to open sales for the St. Petersburg space in January, with an opening to follow next spring.

With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting commercial real estate, Industrious said it has consulted with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other experts to make its workspaces safe as well as comfortable. They include:

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• Screening its member tenants, their guests and vendors to reduce the chances of transmitting the virus, as well as requiring masks in communal areas, limiting the number of people in conference rooms and cafes and banning large in-person events.

• Structuring the workplace to make physical distancing easy and minimally disruptive. The company has designated one-way flows of traffic to minimize face-to-face encounters, removed chairs from conference rooms and spread out desks to give everyone at least 6 feet of space. It is making shields that can be mounted on desks available to members.

• Minimizing the number of surfaces that people touch and regularly sanitizing areas with more traffic.