Like many other coworking spaces that have struggled to retain membership during the pandemic, Texas startup organization Capital Factory is closing its center in Dallas.
The organization, which offers coworking space, mentoring and accelerator programs to startups, as well as investment opportunities, announced it is closing its physical offices at The Centrum in Uptown Dallas. In addition, Capital Factory is closing one of the floors it leases at its Austin location.
“Coworking and meetups have been significantly impacted by COVID-19 and the limitations on working in offices, gathering groups of people, and travel,” Capital Factory wrote in a blog post. “Until they bounce back, we’re closing our Dallas event space and one of our four floors in Austin.”
The move comes as Capital Factory has been struggling with declining coworking memberships due to the pandemic. In March, the organization announced it had furloughed 33 full-time and nine part-time due to the crisis, leaving it with about 40 employees.
Capital Factory said that its plans to open its Center for Autonomous Robotics in Austin, as well as a planned hub at The Ion in Houston next year, are still in the works.
Capital Factory first opened The DEC Network-affiliated 26,000 square-foot Dallas space in 2018, marking its first expansion outside of Austin, where it has operated for more than a decade. Since taking up residence, the organization had been making plans to lease more space at the building. And in June, it announced plans to bring its DoD-centric Defense Innovation Program to Dallas and Houston.
For the time being, Capital Factory said it has partnered with UT Dallas to offer its local members discounted office space at the university’s Venture Development Center.
With little demand for shared office space due to the pandemic, there is no word on if or when Capital Factory will have another physical presence in North Texas. However, it said that it is working on plans to bring back new members and that its staff will still have a presence in the city.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” Capital Factory wrote.
