On the other side of town in the Waldorf Astoria, the landmark of the Art Deco hotel, where the top 33 floors of the guest rooms are being converted into 375 condominiums starting at $ 1.8 million, residents can use a co-working lounge , private offices, a boardroom and conference rooms utilize what is called The Empire Club. The project is expected to be completed in 2023.
But workplaces in existing buildings are already being used well. At Hamilton Cove, a rental building in Weehawken, N.J., the co-working space even became an incubator for a new business during the pandemic.
Three childhood friends who were busy in different areas live in the building and met daily in the rooms to keep each other company while they worked remotely. But they found that there wasn't a really good cup of coffee anywhere nearby.
"We all had Keurig machines in our apartments," said Joe Graziano, 27, one of the trio. "But if we wanted cold brew we thought we'd have to go all the way to Hoboken and back," a 40-minute loop walk.
Working with another childhood friend, Aaron Smith, they started a pop-up coffee cart company. The four friends wrote a business plan and made money. Mr. Smith, who runs the operation, built the company's two cars from scratch.
So far, the carts have appeared in three homes in Weehawken, after which they have become permanent fixtures in the lobbies of two of the buildings, one of which is Hamilton Cove. The young company has also added a coffee bike with coffee and tea on tap.
“The idea is to grow organically and see what happens,” Graziano said.
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