A coworking space in the Short North is getting a splash of pink. The former home of Short North Fitness at The Jackson, 1137 N. High St., is now The Eleanor, a woman-focused community workspace.
The square footage started its transformation earlier this summer when previous operator Brad Howe first converted the space to coworking with High Street-facing micro retail bays as the Jackson Creative Cooperative.
Krysten Kauder’s search for the ideal coworking environment led her to Craigslist where she discovered the address. She wasn’t just interested in an office – but the whole space.
Kauder had been back in Columbus for about a year and a half after 10 years on and off in NYC when she started looking for her ideal workspace in Columbus. She was a disciple of The Wing in the Big Apple, a work and community space designed for women, and struggled to find a similar environment in Columbus. She found many of Columbus’ coworking spaces to be lacking in character or dominated by a corporate feel.
Already an entrepreneur as designer of customizable jewelry brand Shop Ryan Porter, Kauder was also looking for a gathering place for her growing Founders Club, an entrepreneurial-minded group that meets on a monthly basis.
The layout of The Eleanor strikes the blend of coworking and social club that Kauder was aiming for to fill both needs.
There are a variety of workspaces. Private offices run in the $1,050 – $1,200 range. Members can have a dedicated desk to call their own for $300 a month. There are also a variety of drop-in options, ranging from student membership for $59/month, to part-time access with eight visits per month for $149, and a full-time coworking membership for $199/month.
Coworking and office members can expect many of the traditional amenities – coffee, WiFi, with some added twists like hot chocolate on Mondays and a bar cart that might start rolling on Fridays.
Members and non-members can rent The Eleanor’s meeting space. After-hours event rental is also an option at $199/hour with a two hour minimum.
Paying homage to the former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Kauder hopes to create an environment where people aren’t just glued to their computers all day, “But a place that you actually want to talk to the other people around you and collaborate,” she says.
She’ll help that collaboration along by curating a number of events for The Eleanor, from morning yoga, to speaker series and events focusing on mental health.
For more information, visit theeleanor.club.
All photos by Susan Post.
