In the last few years, many companies took some time to reevaluate how to best use their office space.
Some companies decided to bring all their employees back to the office seven days a week following the easing of coronavirus pandemic restrictions, while others continue to operate on a hybrid schedule. In other cases, some companies have employees working remotely full time.
And although the business community is mostly back to normal since the pandemic began, companies are still evaluating and testing those strategies to find what works best for them.
Jasmine Presley created The Presley Post to be another option for office users, adapting her original vision of the coworking space alongside many businesses in Louisville.
“It's been an amazing journey. It's been very tumultuous, like so many highs and low,” Presley said. “When I just kind of stepped out on faith in the middle of a pandemic, opening a business like this, just taking on so much financial risk, a lot of things have been learned along the way.”
I first reported on The Presley Post when it opened last November at 734 W. Main St. Presley created the brand prior to that as a financial blog for wealth building and inspiration.
It's been about a year since she got the keys to the building. Since opening, she's made a few adjustments to the coworking model to be a more effective resource for members of the Louisville business community.
“The community has really grown over the past year,” Presley said. “Our offices remain occupied for the most part… definitely still in high demand for the Downtown Louisville office space.”
The Presley Post has offered memberships since its inception, but Presley said she’s changed up the memberships based on what she found was needed by her clients. Previously, the membership was based on how much access a person had to the physical space. Now, the memberships are based on other programs offered by the organization, as well as physical space.
There are three different tiers, Presley said. The first is for networkers. At $35 a month, members can show up to the different networking events and programs put on by The Presley Post.
The next tier builds on the first, but also includes the ability to use the coworking space’s Main Street address. For $75 a month, members who may not have a formal business address can set up a mailbox at The Presley Post and have their mail sent Downtown.
“Our members can have their business mail sent to The Presley Post,” Presley said. “It’s so beneficial to entrepreneurs and just helping them understand like, 'Hey, you can actually keep your home address private.'”
She said many have taken the organization up on that opportunity, as the group is almost out of available mailboxes. The Presley Post has about 30 mailboxes now and hopes to double that in the near future.
The last tier, which starts at $195 per month, gives members all the benefits of the first, as well access to the physical coworking space (which you can see in the gallery below). Members in this tier also get discounts at The Presley Post’s community partners, one example being MELANnaire Marketplace.
The Presley Post
Presley said she’s seen a range of different business-types utilize the space, including real estate agents and investors, production companies, therapists, yoga and fitness coaches and more.
The coworking space has even seen entire companies. Presley said one company reached out after ending its lease agreement during the pandemic and all its employees were working from home.
“They were wanting to transition back into our office environment but were wanting to test it out before they actually happen into another lease,” Presley said. “Coworking is like that perfect transition solution.”
This week, The Presley Post is hosting Legacy Week to celebrate its one-year anniversary. Each day, it will host events, such as a mental health and substance misuse workshop, a tech and metaverse seminar, a wine networking event on generational wealth and health building, a panel discussion on alternative healing and more.
On Saturday, the organization is blocking off part of Eighth Street for a celebration. It’ll have food trucks and other vendors, as well as performances from the African American Theater Program and The Real Young Prodigys and a panel discussion with some legacy builders in the community.
“I think that [the pandemic] has propelled a lot of people, as they're making decisions or losing their jobs or not wanting to go back to work, to be like hey, I'm going to start a business,” Presley said. “And so just for them to have an inclusive space, creative space, functional space for them to build their businesses is so important, especially having a built-in network of other entrepreneurs to lean into definitely contributes to each of our success.”
