A building at the former Commonwealth Games Athletes' Village has been repurposed and refitted by the Palaszczuk Government to make way for Gold Coast's newest coworking and innovation space — COHORT.
The former site of the Commonwealth Games hair salon, corner shop and police station has been transformed and is now a prime location for start-up businesses to lease space in a co-working environment.
Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning, Cameron Dick said the opening of COHORT marks Economic Development Queensland's first activation in the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct.
"The Health and Knowledge Precinct will transform the Gold Coast into a global business location for high-tech development, research collaboration and the jobs of the future in the health and knowledge sector, and, as a 10 to 15-year project, it will ultimately contribute an extra 12,000 jobs and an additional $1.4 billion to the State's economy.
"As a key part of the Precinct, COHORT offers a brand new, modern and flexible coworking space that will accommodate over 200 people in hot desks, private offices and bespoke tenancies as well as a 150-person event space."
Member for Gaven Meaghan Scanlon said the new working space, supported by an investment of almost $3 million from the Palaszczuk Government, was a new way for businesses to start up and grow.
"Shared meeting rooms, boardrooms, a podcast room and end-of-trip facilities are readily available to COHORT occupants and will help to reduce overheads for businesses, as well as supporting them so they can focus their energy on powering innovation and growth," she said.
"COHORT will be a launchpad for health and technology start-ups, incubators, entrepreneurs, accelerators, mentors and investors and it's fantastic to see such a positive response from the health, technology and education sector in using these innovative facilities."
Local Southport company CoSpaces was selected as the operator of COHORT, following an open expression of interest process.
CoSpaces CEO Ben Howe said it was an honour to manage such an outstanding facility, to expand its business and see this new vision come to life.
"The regenerated space will now build a stronger entrepreneurial community and is fully equipped with security, reception and concierge, and will run community programs and events—everything your business needs to succeed will be located under one roof," Mr Howe said.
"Within three weeks of opening the doors, nine businesses have committed to joining COHORT with six more expected to join in the coming weeks, totalling over 80 people.
"65 of these people are in health and technology related businesses and it is estimated that up to 20 new jobs will be created within these businesses and we hope to employ up to 10 people for our own team, when we reach full capacity.
"Our focus is to support and connect start-up founders with programs and partners that will help them break the barriers to success and we look forward to sharing homegrown business success stories emerging from COHORT." Mr Howe said.
The Health and Knowledge Precinct aims to be a vibrant, world renowned community of ideas, life and innovation and will house some of Australia's leading scientists, research institutes and facilities, acting as a drawcard to attract highly skilled workers to Queensland and build job opportunities.
