As companies plan post-pandemic office return, co-working makes a comeback in Chicago

With Chicago office vacancy rates at an all-time high and companies tentatively beginning to herd employees back into communal settings, co-working spaces — hard hit during the pandemic — are making a comeback.

Two major co-working spaces opened this month in Chicago, including an expansive Fulton Market location from the once high-flying WeWork, and a new entry from Minnesota-based fitness chain Life Time, which launched a 39,000-square-foot space adjacent to its recently opened athletic club in River North.

“Co-working is here to stay, and many of the entities that survived the pandemic are doing well or starting to recover,” said Bob Chodos, vice chairman at the Chicago office of Newmark, a real estate services company.

A pre-pandemic boom that flooded the market with major national players such as WeWork, Industrious and Novel, downtown Chicago had 94 co-working spaces occupying about 3.4 million square feet at the end of 2019, according to a Newmark study. WeWork became the largest office tenant in Chicago. Projections for growth were robust. Then the pandemic hit.

Expansion halted, some spaces closed and co-working in Chicago,