Henderson's first communal workspace now under construction

Jul. 31—HENDERSON — Work from home seems to be a rising trend nationwide after the COVID-19 Pandemic.

According to the Stanford Report, 5% of workers worked remotely before the pandemic — during which time it rose dramatically to 61.5%. Post-pandemic, that number has settled down to 30%. A Global Workplace Analytics survey of 1,100 American workers in 2020 found that 82% wanted to work remotely at least once a week.

However, as the Harvard Business Review found in a 2023 survey of 819 workers, working from home presented another problem — loneliness, a problem that working in the office doesn't quite solve either. Of the respondents, 67% found working in a third place, like a co-working space, more fulfilling than working from home. The number of co-working spaces, such as WeWork, have been on the rise since 2005.

Henderson may soon join that trend. Flex Desk, a brick and mortar communal workspace and the first of its kind in Henderson, is currently under construction. William and Nicole Turner, a married couple originally from New York and 20-year residents of Henderson, are the founders and co-owners.

William hopes to open the business by November. However, Nicole noted they don't have a set opening date as of yet, adding that they'll have one soon. The pair has owned the two-story building at 100 South Garnett Street since July of 2021, with construction beginning earlier this year.

The two haven't had much luck finding contractors who were both available this year and within their price range. As such, William has taken it upon himself to set the place up, all while running his own business, the Wake County-based telecommunication company Turncom360.

"I've been making sure to be nice to him," Nicole joked. "The first floor is coming along really nicely."

Flex Desk has a plan.

"The goal of ours, and the mission that we have, is to bring everyone together," said Nicole. "If there is a person that wanted to, say, open their own business, we would have the space, if they wanted to be out of the house. We would offer them a myriad of business services to get them up and running."

That's where Turncom360 comes in.

"If any entrepreneurs are trying to enhance what they already have or starting from scratch," he said, "we pretty much give them everything that they need. We give them a website, a business phone system; we give them business emails, we give them a digital footprint, we put them out on the internet so they can be found. There's a whole gamut of backend services that we offer, and this space will be an addition to that."

The idea is to create a "one-stop shop for entrepreneurs," said Nicole. Indeed, the company's business plan shares what amenities clients may be able to enjoy:

— A state-of-the-art Podcast room

— Seamless cloud-based bridge conferencing & teleconferencing

— Private, shared, and community office spaces

— Corporate meeting and collaboration spaces

— Virtual co-working space, so clients can work seamlessly from home

— Physical business address that meets Google My Business criteria

— Multiple levels of membership access and flexibility

— Clients of all membership levels will be able to enjoy the following:

— Secure high-speed WiFi

— Professional receptionist services and dedicated IT support

— A personalized, dedicated VoIP WiFi phone system; a professional business mailing address

— Shipping and receiving services during business hours and personalized support from the onsite team.

— Access to a full suite of business services such as domain registration, business website design and development, website hosting and printing services

She said the company doesn't plan on employing anybody until they can pay any potential employees a living wage.

The building is 7,454 square feet, though around 3,500 to 6,000 will be dedicated to co-working space, per the business plan.

In the future, Nicole helps to hold educational programs for local children on skills oft-forgotten by today's educational system, like "mechanical drying, typing, woodshop and job readiness.

"We're trying to open this space and kind of be a proud little stamp on the community, to make a positive, lasting impression on what folks can do."