Name: The Gazette
Address: 116 Third St SE, Cedar Rapids, IA, 52401, US
Telephone: (319) 398-8333
Price range: $$

ImpactCR’s young professoinals meet in June at the Armstrong Hub in downtown Cedar Rapids. Armstrong Development Co. has opened the fourth floor of the Armstrong Centre, 222 Third Ave. SE, as a co-working space, offering offices and conference rooms for one-day meetings or longer-term leases. (Armstrong Development Co.) — ImpactCR’s young professionals meet in June at the Armstrong Hub in downtown Cedar Rapids. Armstrong Development Co. has opened the fourth floor of the Armstrong Centre, 222 Third Ave. SE, as a co-working space, offering offices and conference rooms for one-day meetings or longer-term leases. (Armstrong Development Co.)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The new Armstrong Hub co-working space is offering office and office amenities to people who need a space outside their home for meetings or work.

Armstrong Development Co. held a ribbon-cutting last week for the 25,000-square-foot space on the fourth floor of the Armstrong Centre, 222 Third Ave. SE.

“It will provide a community of fellow business professionals,” said Dennis Beery, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing.

The Armstrong Hub was designed from the group up “to make focusing on work easy,” Beery said.

It has 32 private office spaces, ranging from 120 to 1,000 square feet, with a 75 percent occupancy space upon its opening, he said.

The offices have electric height-adjustable desks, chairs, filing cabinets, guest chairs and high-speed internet capable of supporting Zoom conferencing.

The offices have flexible lease terms and can be rented on long-term agreement or by the hour “for short meetings with clients in a professional environment,” Berry said.

“People may be happy with their home offices but need a professional address or an impressive meeting spot,” Beery said.

Typically, he said, those leasing office space sign a one-year lease. Offices start at $450 per month and go up, depending on size, location and length of the lease, he said.

Tenants have 24/7 access. Hourly guests are limited to access during business hours, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A large conference room is available, with seating for 14, as well as smaller “huddle” rooms that seat four.

The Armstrong Hub also offers amenities such as mail handling, a receptionist, a stocked cafe and access to a printer, copier and scanner, Beery said.

Parking is offered in a landlord-owned space about a block away, with access to the downtown skywalks, he added.

The Armstrong Centre also offers executive suites on the building’s second and fifth floors.

Other spaces

To date, the only other co-working space in Cedar Rapids has been The Vault, which is owned and operated by NewBoCo, 208 Second Ave. SE. About half its clients are self-employed, its manager told The Gazette in May.

The Vault offers free co-working space on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 10 a.m. Day passes are $20, with longer-term memberships available.

International Workplace Group, a British holding company, plans to open one of its Regus co-working spaces at 4515 N. River Blvd. NE, on the former AEGON campus, later this year. It now operates four Regus spaces in Iowa.

The Iowa City Area Development Group operates the MERGE Iowa City co-working space at 136 S. Dubuque St. and CoWork@808 at 808 Fifth St. in Coralville. It also cooperates with privately owned North Liberty CoLab on Highway 151.

About 60 percent of MERGE members are working remotely for their employers, with the balance being entrepreneurs and startups, its manager told The Gazette in May.