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    The Hub on Kenny Brings Coworking, Event Space to Upper Arlington Area

    A coworking space on top of a bar could be absolute genius or somewhat questionable, but The Hub on Kenny, 4510 Kenny Rd., turns the previously underutilized second floor above Harrison’s on Kenny into a sleek, modern – and harmonious – coworking and event space.

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    When the owners of the bar approached real estate veteran Brooks Humphreys saying they really didn’t have a good use for the space above Harrison’s, the immediate thought was not coworking.

    We didn’t sit around in a room and say, ‘Hey, let’s start a coworking space,'” Humphreys says. “We said, ‘What’s the best use of this space?'”

    That best use was coworking for several reasons. First, Humphreys has a friend who runs a similar setup in West Virginia. He visited the space and liked the concept.

    While it’s open to members 24/7, a day-centric business made sense as to not compete with bar traffic at night. The building could essentially flip-flop functions and parking lot uses from day to night.hub-04

    The Hub also fills a gap in the market. With a majority of the coworking spaces centered around Short North or Downtown, “It just didn’t feel like there was anything close to that location,” Humphreys says. 

    It’s the second coworking space to pop up in recent months to focus on areas outside to the downtown core, joining COhatch and its soon-to-open space in Worthington. Sitting on the edge of Upper Arlington and in a cluster of strip malls and stores, Humphreys says some people might perceive it as an odd location, but especially when it comes to coworking, location is all relative. People want to live close to where they work, and there are plenty of residents in the area.

    Clocking in at 6,000 square feet, the massive space has options for the solo-worker to the 150+ people event planner.

    Ten private offices come in two sizes – large and regular – costing $800 – $1,200/month and $600/month respectively. Open, shared space is abundant for the community member – a $100/month deal that provides 24/7 access to the facility (as do office memberships).

    Two phone booths provide space for a moment of quiet or a quick call. The Hub also features two conference rooms – one large, executive-style and the other a four-seater fit for smaller affairs. If a private conference room isn’t necessary, sitting behind a partition in one of the open rooms are two six-person tables fit for collaboration.

    What we wanted to do was create a lot of small seating areas for people to collaborate, for people to host small meetings,” Humphreys says. 

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    Members and non-members are invited to use The Hub’s various meeting spaces. The smaller conference room can be rented by the hour ($20 for members, $30 for non-members), half-day ($50 members, $75 non-members) or the day ($75 or $100). The large conference room clocks in at $40/hour or $250/day for non-members and $25/hour or $150/day for members.

    Humphreys wants their space to be an alternative to the stuffy hotel conference room that businesses large and small have been utilizing for years.

    Touting its suitability for events and the social environments it creates is just as important to The Hub owners as promoting a great place to work. A 20-foot bar built into one of the large, open rooms makes it ideal for a work event to a ‘let’s rent out the space and watch the game’ sort of affair. Events are quoted on a case-by-case basis, but the space can help coordinate or provide ideas on catering, bartending and valet services.

    The Hub officially opened at the beginning of June and already has tenants in a number of offices, and much interest in its event capabilities.

    For more information, visit thehubonkenny.com.

    All photos by Susan Post. 

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    Susan Post
    Susan Post
    Susan is the editor of The Metropreneur and associate editor of Columbus Underground, and also covers small business and entrepreneurial news and the food scene in Central Ohio.Susan holds a degree in Communication with a minor in Professional Writing from The Ohio State University. She sits on the board of the Central Ohio Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and loves coffee, whiskey, cooking and spending time with friends and family.
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