More and more condos are being developed in Toronto with their own coworking spaces. While gathering and working communally may be discouraged right now, it could be a smart move as working from home might be the wave of the future.

One such space will be present at Sugar Wharf Condos in the South Core by Menkes Developments Ltd., where there will be co-work/meeting rooms.

"All of the amenities we incorporate into our high rise residential developments are meant to be spaces that cater to every family and every type of lifestyle. The goal is always to give residents everything they would want and get out of a single-family home in a condo setting," Mimi Ng, SVP residential sales and marketing for Menkes told blogTO.

"With the co-work space, we saw an increasing demand for open workspaces well before the pandemic, whether it be for professionals meeting with clients, students who needed a quiet place to study, or even for parents that wanted their kids to get some homework done outside their suites."

At The Saint in Old Town, developed by Minto, there will be a 52nd floor coworking hub with WiFi, a kitchen, green roofs and a connection to outdoor terraces, as well as a ground floor co-working lobby lounge.

"We wanted to provide a flexible co-working/social space program that responded to the evolving lifestyles of customers. Remote working, supplementary employment (i.e. the 'side hustle'), and cohabitation have become increasingly common within the past few years," Matthew Brown, director, product development for Minto told blogTO.

"The pervasiveness of mobile devices means many people are always connected to work, blurring the lines between work and personal time and changing how people socialize."

A rendering of what a coworking space could look like at 28 Eastern by Alterra. Image courtesy of Alterra.

Alterra's 28 Eastern condominium project in Corktown commenced sales in July of 2020 with amenity programming being planned and designed at the start of the pandemic, and purchasers moving in 2024.

"We chose to modify the use of the planned courtyard terrace. Through strategically placed landscape buffers we were able to transform the outdoor area by creating several individually spaced, quiet seating or private work from home pods. We wanted to give future homeowners a peaceful fresh air escape," Dagmar Caine, assistant marketing manager for Alterra told blogTO.

"We even incorporated outdoor electrical receptacles in each work pod to accommodate laptop, phones and electronic needs for our homeowners. The interior coworking space was anticipated to be in alignment with a more technologically advanced and remote but productive and collaborative future."

They're incorporating various types of seating into the interior space that can be repositioned on a daily basis as needed to allow the distance between seating to be adjusted.

A second floor coworking lounge at Empire Quay House developed by Empire Communities comes with WiFi, a board room and a custom coffee bar.

"With the area growing as a hub for tech and innovation, we knew a collaborative coworking space to accommodate our residents' professional needs outside of their suite would be an essential part of the amenity plans," Emilio Tesolin, president, High-Rise at Empire Communities told blogTO.

55 Mercer will come equipped with a thoughtfully designed coworking space. Image courtesy of CentreCourt.

Developer CentreCourt is responsible for 47-storey condo 55 Mercer that's slated to rise where Wayne Gretzky's once was. It should feature a ninth floor coworking space with leather booths, a boardroom table and a kitchenette. Like Minto, they'd also had their eye on WFH trends prior to the pandemic, noticing coffee shops full of workers.

"The need and value of beautiful co-working spaces is a trend that we identified several years ago, around the time We Work and other shared co-working environments began proliferating, and we believe is a powerful trend that's only growing stronger with time. Prior to COVID, the demand for this type of communal work environment was so clear," CentreCourt VP Gavin Cheung told blogTO.

"While most people are working from home in the short-term, with the dramatically increased adoption of ZOOM and other tools we believe co-working spaces will become even more valuable and indispensable as the threat posed by COVID recedes."

As the number of condos with coworking spaces surges, we can only hope COVID does ebb away, leaving behind aesthetically pleasing communal workspaces that make life more pleasant for those working from home.