All kinds of coworking spaces in Newton

Across the country, coworking spaces are reshaping the traditional office model. In Newton, centers like Ware Street Workspaces in Auburndale, Labshares in Nonantum, and the UMass Innovation Institute in Oak Hill are prominent examples of that trend, offering different services. 

According to a report by Statista in November 2025, the global coworking market was valued at $41.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $62.75 billion by 2029. Newton Economic Development Director Lauren Berman said that following the COVID-19 pandemic, many office spaces have remained vacant as companies shift toward remote and hybrid work. 

Referring to coworking space, she said, “It’s a nice bridge for right now.” 

Ware Street Workspaces: Shipping, receiving, and more

Ware Street Workspaces offers units ranging from about 250 to 2,500 square feet, allowing businesses to handle warehousing, assembly, and light manufacturing alongside offices and a common area. Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Arnone and President Victor Schmidt walked through the warehouse, pointing out companies across the hybrid workspace as they described the business, which opened a location in Newton in February 2025. 

“We try to blend those elements of warehouse industrial, but also have elements that you see in other coworking spaces,” Arnone said. 

In one room, Arnone pointed to a livestream underway for 36samplesale, a wholesale vendor that sells a range of products, from electronics to apparel. 

Patrick Voltaire, who works in shipping and receiving for 36samplesale, said he feels fortunate to work in a company operating out of Ware Street. 

“This is like a family establishment,” Voltaire said. 

Arnone said the model offers a more cost-effective alternative to traditional commercial real estate.

As he spoke, the tour approached the loading dock, where staff moved freight in and out of the warehouse through clear plastic-strip curtains hanging at the entrance. 

On-site Ware Street staff can manage shipping and receiving, storing inbound materials and supporting outbound orders for multiple tenant companies. 

“It allows them to rotate through their different real estate needs,” Schmidt said. 

Schmidt said Ware Street targets firms in high-cost incubator spaces in Boston and Cambridge coming from the university system. 

“They need to take their first step into the real world. We are a happy medium between that incubator and a 50,000-square-foot warehouse where they will eventually end up,” Schmidt said. 

Maggie Pentzak, founder of Rebel Sprout, runs a small-batch urban farming company that uses vertical growing systems to produce microgreens for restaurants, specialty markets, and home delivery. The company also incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning to inform its growing process. 

When Rebel Sprout launched just over a year ago, Pentzak said she saw strong demand but wanted to limit risk. She turned to Ware Street. 

“Flexibility was paramount,” she said. 

Labshares: Lab space, office space, equipment

Philip Borden spent 23 years as an investor focused on health care and life sciences, backing many of the same types of emerging biotech companies that now operate within Labshares’ coworking spaces. He saw firsthand the challenges many of those companies faced in getting labs up and running, from permitting requirements to other logistical hurdles. 

Borden was drawn to the Labshares approach of shared laboratory space and went on to purchase the company about three years ago.

Labshares has operated for more than eight years and currently supports about 25 companies working within its shared lab spaces. The company has two locations in Newton, including one at 55 Chapel Street and its original site nearby at 90 Bridge Street. In total, the company operates about 44,000 square feet of space across its two locations, split between laboratory and office use. 

Borden said Labshares is expanding into Watertown, adding 58,000 square feet and roughly doubling its footprint, while maintaining its operations in Newton.

The expansion will bring the company’s total space to more than 100,000 square feet in the coming weeks, with a second phase expected in November.

Borden said Labshares offers three main components: laboratory space, office areas, and access to roughly $15 million worth of laboratory equipment that members can use without having to purchase it themselves. 

“We buy it, we own it, we maintain it, and our members get to use it,” Borden said. 

Beyond space and equipment, Labshares offers backend lab services and infrastructure to support its members’ day-to-day operations. 

Borden said Boston is the epicenter of biotechnology. 

“It is the single thing that we’re the best at in the world,” Borden said. “Almost a third of all biotech is here in Boston.” 

Companies at Labshares span a wide range of stages and specialties. 

“Some of them are just super-early-stage startups, so two people and an idea,” Borden said. 

Labshares also hosts more established firms, including companies that have been operating for five to 10 years and some that are publicly traded. Teams typically range from one to about 30 scientists. 

Most of the space is dedicated to private labs. 

“That’s really our main focus of what we provide,” Borden said. 

The shared lab equipment includes tools such as flow cytometers, PCR machines, and other specialized instruments. 

“Everything here is meticulous and clean,” Borden said. 

Despite the concentration of lab space in the region, Borden said many facilities nearby have lower occupancy rates. 

Borden said, “The center of the biotech universe is Kendall Square,” but he noted that Kendall Square is a difficult place to start a company due to the high costs as well as lack of free parking available. 

“We think of our Newton and Watertown locations as being in the Goldilocks zone for Boston biotech,” Borden said. 

UMass Innovation Institute: Shared labs, student interns

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Charles River Campus in Newton, coworking takes a different form. Kathryn Ellis, director of the university’s Innovation Institute, said companies – particularly in materials sciences – embed themselves alongside students, using shared space, to test ideas and recruit talent in real time. 

Students work directly with companies either on campus or nearby, often through six-month placements designed to lead to full-time roles.

Ellis said many early-stage biotech companies in Greater Boston struggle to commit to long-term leases as their teams rapidly expand and contract, often spinning out of university research. 

“They don’t know if they are going to have two people today or 10 people tomorrow,” Ellis said. 

The Charles River campus offers flexible, month-to-month leases. The goal, Ellis said, is to help companies scale while keeping them connected to the university – and, in turn, continuing to create opportunities for students down the line. 

Ellis explained that hiring UMass students as interns comes at relatively low cost, supported in part by state-backed programs. After a dip in funding following federal cuts last year, Ellis said the state has stepped in to increase research investment at universities. 

Drawing on her experience as Newton’s Economic Development director from 2017 to 2019, she said the city has long faced limited commercial space and a shrinking supply of office buildings. 

“We should be incentivizing more companies to go west [to Newton], because the workforce is higher-skilled and the affordability is better than in Boston,” Ellis said.