You wouldn't expect to find one of the Twin Cities' newest coworking spaces sandwiched between two antiques shops on the sleepy Main Street of downtown Hopkins – but that's exactly where The Commons opened in May.
Entrepreneurs and sisters Peggy Stefan and Tammy Magney have been in the coworking business since 2012, expanding quickly and quietly in a place where few large coworking companies dare to tread: the suburbs.
Stefan and Magney used their retirement savings to open their first location of The Commons in Excelsior six years ago. Since then, the sisters have opened offices in Minnetonka, and most recently, downtown Hopkins.
The Commons has around 125 members, Stefan told Minne Inno, with more individuals and companies circling through the spaces on a regular basis for meetings and conferences. Spaces like The Commons are becoming increasingly popular amongst founders and business owners who don't want to make the trek to Minneapolis and St. Paul, where the majority of the Twin Cities' coworking spaces are located.
"There's this whole vibrant thing happening outside the city limits that people don't know about"
It wasn't easy starting a coworking company during the industry's early days in the Twin Cities, and it was even more difficult to do so outside of Minneapolis. Initially, Excelsior residents didn't respond to the space as the sisters hoped they would.
"Oh they didn't know what the heck we were," Stefan said of the community's first impression.
She added that their very first member was a 78-year-old real estate agent who was looking for office space. Today the company has more than 100 members from all ages and industries. Growth at the Excelsior location was slow but steady, and by the third year, the business was able to support itself – she and her sister no longer needed to bootstrap the operation.
"It's a word-of-mouth business," Stefan said. "At Excelsior, the real tipping point has been within the last year."
That's around the same time they were approached by owners of a building in Hopkins about opening a coworking space. It's a special place for the sisters, who now live in Excelsior, but grew up in Hopkins.
"There's this whole vibrant thing happening outside the city limits that people don't know about," Stefan said. "Hopkins in particular is really on fire right now."
There are a number of new developments in the area, including a new light-rail station that could bring people from the metro to areas like Hopkins and vice versa.
The Commons will likely always be in the Greater Lake Minnetonka region, Stefan said. They have no plans to get in on the coworking competition in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
"It's a little crowded downtown and in the North Loop," she said. "We don't compete with WeWork, Industrious or Fueled. We don't want to."
Most of The Commons' members work within five miles of one of the locations and want to work within the area where they live, Stefan said. They don't want to travel downtown if they don't need to. Inevitably, some members outgrow their space in The Commons are move to one of the larger coworking spaces downtown.
"They'll come in, get started then decide to go somewhere else. And we wish them well," Stefan said. "There are a lot of benefits to operating in a small space like this. You feel like you're really part of a community. People come here to do business, then they become friends."
