In autumn 2014, the former Pearl Arts & Crafts building on South Street got
new life as a dance and fitness complex, but the venture was short-lived. Now, a co-working space focused on young and growing companies is set to open in May.
Joynture Work Habitat, which operates under the umbrella of software design and development company
EWS, already has one location on Wall Street in New York City; it will open another in Lahore, Pakistan this year.
EWS Vice President of Business Development and Joynture co-founder Kyle Riggle says the company has been looking to expand to Philly for the last year.
"The reason we’re interested in Philly is just because the tech scene here is really starting to come alive," says Riggle. "I think that’s kind of the market we like to go after."
The hunt for a space began in Center City and then moved to Old City without turning up the right spot in terms of size, price, lease length and "a landlord willing to work with the type of business that we want to run," explains Riggle. "That’s not easy to find."
A Northern California native who came to the East Coast to attend Columbia University, Riggle lived in New York City for the past six years before buying a house in Philly’s Point Breeze neighborhood. He was strolling South Street one day late last year with his brother when he saw a sign in the Pearl building window. He met with the owner the next day for a tour.
"It had a lot of character and a lot of potential," he recalls. "Right when I saw it, I knew I could do something cool with it if I could make the numbers work."
The lease for Joynture’s new Philly location was finalized last December.
With the support of EWS, members will have access to a host of technical resources:
membership benefits include big discounts from Amazon Web Services, Zipcar, UPS, B & H, and more.
The space will be a mix of private offices available for rent and co-working space. There will be an event area on the first floor and offices on the second. The 9,000-square-foot third floor can be tailored for multiple tenants looking for anything from 500 to 2,000 square feet. Startups interested in getting into the new Joynture space can e-mail
[email protected] to get the ball rolling.
Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Kyle Riggle, Joynture Work Habitat