Austin co-working changes: The Refinery shifts directions, the Riveter opens

Changes are coming to Austin's co-working scene.

At the end of the month, the Refinery, Austin's first female-focused work and social community, will be ending its co-working services.

The Refinery, at Seventh and Brazos streets downtown, opened in January 2018 as a co-working and event space.

"We've built a strong community of amazing women here at The Refinery over the past year, but as a business, we are not well positioned for the growing market need," Wakefield said. "I truly believe that our mission is not defined by the walls of this building and it will continue.

Meanwhile, the Riveter, a fast-growing national co-working firm, has opened its first Austin location at 1145 W. Second St. The Riveter, named after World War II icon Rosie the Riveter,  describes itself as "a network of community and co-working spaces built by women, for everyone." Its offerings include co-working, programming, resources and content.

Wakefield said that when she decided to end offering coworking, she approached the Riveter about assuming the memberships of the Refinery.

"When we met with the Riveter team earlier this year, we all felt an instant connection and found that we are passionate about supporting each other in building community in Austin," she said.

As a result, the 90 current Refinery members will be offered the option to join the Riveter at the same rate of a floating desk of $225 per month. (The Riveter charges $375 for a floating desk). During the transition, the Refinery and the Riveter will partner on future event bookings.

The Riveter opened its first co-working space in May 2017 in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. In addition to Austin, it has since opened two additional spaces in the Seattle area and two in the Los Angeles area. In December, Riveter raised $15 million from investors to accelerate the company's growth.

At the time of the funding announcement, Riveter said it had expanded to more than 2,000 members across five locations and plans to add additional locations throughout the country, including Texas.

In other co-working news, last week WeWork announced it will open a co-working facility at South by Southwest’s new corporate headquarters in downtown Austin.

Under the agreement, WeWork will lease 65,000 square feet of the 12-story office tower, which is under construction at 1400 Lavaca St. The building is expected to be completed in June 2019 and WeWork’s facility in the building is expected to open in late 2019.

WeWork, which already has five Austin-area locations, will take three full floors of the new tower, which was designed by Yvonne Szeto and Bruce White with Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, an architecture firm based in New York. Gensler is the architect of record for the project.

In a sign that New York-based WeWorks plans to continue to expand in Austin, the company in December bought Waller Park Place, 4.7 acres located both east and west of Red River Street in the Rainey Street area on downtown Austin’s eastern edge. The seller was McCourt Global.