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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Speakeasy, the Indianapolis nonprofit that offers co-working space and entrepreneurial support, plans to wind down operations by the end of the year.
Executive Director Chelsea Marburger said the last day of operations for The Speakeasy’s co-working space, 5255 N. Winthrop Ave., will be Dec. 20. The organization itself will begin the dissolution process Dec. 31.
The organization plans to host a farewell party from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 12 for current members, alumni and others who have a Speakeasy connection.
The Speakeasy, which launched in 2011 and opened the doors to its co-working space in 2012, bills itself as the state’s first co-working space. Companies that got their start at The Speakeasy includes Indianapolis-based software design firm Innovatemap, the tech-powered delivery kitchen Clustertruck, and software firms Greenlight Guru and Lessonly, among others.
Current and former Speakeasy members have launched businesses that have created hundreds of jobs over the years.
Marburger said multiple factors, including rising rent and changes in the co-working scene over the last several years, were behind the organization’s decision to shut down operations. The Speakeasy’s board of directors made the decision Oct. 21.
The Speakeasy’s current lease expires at the end of the year, and Marburger said a new lease would have included a drastic increase in rent.
The organization would have had to raise its membership rates to help cover that extra cost, Marburger said, and didn’t want to do that.
“The mission of The Speakeasy has always been to lower barriers to entrepreneurship, and the way we do that is to provide affordable co-working space,” she said.
After an extensive search for a new home, The Speakeasy couldn’t find the right spot, Marburger said.
The organization needed a space that fit three criteria, she said. It had to be affordable. It needed to be accessible, with features such as free parking, elevators and easy access to bus lines. And it needed to be flexible. The Speakeasy’s revenue comes from both membership fees and event rental fees, and so a new space would have to be suitable for both co-working and special events such as weddings.
After a six-month search in various parts of town, Speakeasy couldn’t find a space meeting those criteria, Marburger said.
An additional factor in the decision to shut down: The co-working landscape has changed considerably since The Speakeasy opened a dozen years ago.
“We laid the groundwork and the foundation for what co-working would eventually be in the state,” Marburger said.
But now, she said, The Speakeasy has a lot of competition, with more than 20 co-working spaces currently operating in central Indiana alone.
Additionally, Marburger said, the remote-work trends spurred by the pandemic over the past few years have also changed the nature of co-working.
Early on, Marburger said, about 80% of The Speakeasy’s members were entrepreneurs—the type of member that The Speakeasy was established to support. Now, she said, entrepreneurs represent only about 40% of the membership, with remote workers making up the other 60%.
The organization currently has about 160 members. To smooth their transition once The Speakeasy closes, Marburger said, six local co-working spaces have agreed to offer special promotional membership rates to that group.
The Speakeasy was founded by local entrepreneurs and advisers Dave Castor, Andy Clark, Jeb Banner and Kristian Andersen. It has always operated out of a former carpet warehouse on Winthrop Avenue south of Broad Ripple.
Denver Hutt, the original executive director, was credited with establishing the organization as a premier entrepreneurial destination through her programming efforts. Hutt died at age 28 in 2016 after battling ovarian cancer.
From 2015 to 2018, The Speakeasy, through partnerships, helped establish several other co-working spaces in the area under different names. Platform 24 in Carmel and zWorks in Zionsville remain from those efforts.
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Broad Ripple is getting expensive & this is a sad loss.
Although it seems like the North Mass area probably has lower rents & could sustain something like this.
It’s interesting that a new coworking business is going into the same space after they leave. I’m assuming they will have higher membership fees based on this article.
Anybody know the plans for the building itself?
Incredibly disappointing that the new owners are willing to squander the legacy of this organization and to leave behind many budding entrepreneurs who need a place to learn and grow their businesses. The Speakeasy wasn’t just a building with wifi. It wasn’t just your average coworking space. It was an incredible community with direct access to experts in finance, HR, legal, marketing, and so much more. They eliminated barriers for so many.
+1
Very sad to read this given the Speakeasy is what fostered my organization’s early successes. Disappointing that the property owner is attempting to hijack the space and convert it to a for-profit model in the already saturated for-profit coworking space market here in Central Indiana.
So sad to see this pillar of the community going away.
The Speakeasy provided a community to me as a newcomer to Indianapolis from the Bay Area (CA) – land of for-profit and non-profit coworking spaces – even as I remained a guest/partner for events and co-working activities vs a member. Big loss for the entrepreneurship community!