Mirvac opens coworking hub The Third Space in Broadway shopping centre

Property developer Mirvac has opened The Third Space, a coworking hub in its Broadway shopping centre in Sydney.

The pop up hub, which will operate for three months and initially be free, is an initiative of Mirvac’s ‘innovation driver’ Hatch, a team that focuses on creating innovative retail experiences for customers.

As well as providing work pods and meeting spaces, The Third Space will give users access to free parking and allow them to pre-order food and drinks from Broadway retailers.

Susan MacDonald, head of retail at Mirvac, said the hub is an example of how Mirvac defines innovation: ‘change that adds value’.

“At Mirvac Retail we have been investing in understanding the rapidly evolving lifestyles of our connected urban customers and this concept might be at the cutting edge of retail right now, but we believe it fits perfectly with the progressive aspirations of our local community,” she said.

The company stated that The Third Space came out of 50 hours of customer research conducted by Hatch, with the team finding modern ‘mobile workers’ want the “trappings of a modern office in an environment where they have retail at their fingertips”, making Broadway a suitable spot.

Teresa Giuffrida, Mirvac’s group general manager of innovation, explained that with Mirvac seeing the need for collaborative coworking spaces across all its assets, it believes The Third Space is “the future of work”.

“It provides a ‘third space’ between home and office that caters to the latest trend of the mobile worker looking for a convenient space that offers the benefits of an office, without the commute,” she said.

This idea is also being explored by Sydney venture TwoSpace, which transforms restaurants closed during the day into a network of coworking spaces for mobile workers. The company is also working with hotel groups to transform their lobbies and other spaces into coworking areas.

We had a chat to TwoSpace cofounder Tashi Dorjee about the changing nature of coworking on a recent episode of the Startup meet Corporate podcast:

Image: The Third Space. Source: Supplied.