SINGAPORE - Hong Kong-based co-working outfit Campfire Collaborative Spaces is muscling in on Singapore's shared office space, with the start-up announcing it has leased all 16 floors at 139 Cecil Street.
The site is an 11-storey building undergoing major renovation to add five more floors, which Campfire said will include a roof terrace with an "industry-first sky pool, rooftop bar, outdoor dining area and cabanas" for members.
Upon completion in the third quarter of next year, its 85,000 sq ft of space will make it Campfire's largest site globally.
The mixed-use development will also house food-and-beverage and retail outlets, a full-service gym and parking spaces.
Events, conferencing, education, well-being and recreation facilities will also feature, besides a wide range of private and shared offices.
Campfire was founded 2½ years ago and now has 20 co-working sites across four countries occupying over 580,000 sq ft.
The firm's press statement made no mention of its lease duration at Cecil Street, but reporting by The Business Times earlier this month noted it had most likely signed a six-year contract with mainboard-listed Vibrant Group, which holds a stake in the property's owner, Ececil.
Campfire's co-founder and chief executive Wang Tse said the start-up is looking forward to opening in Singapore and "bringing something completely new to the sector".
"Cecil Street is a total integration of all aspects of what we offer at Campfire and it's really exciting to have finally found a site that can showcase and deliver this fully integrated lifestyle platform to the community, offering work-life balance, wellness and convenience, all under one roof," he added.
Campfire offers an international network of collaborative spaces, from industry-focused co-working platforms to co-living, co-retail and a number of co-learning operations.
The announcement of Campfire's Singapore office comes after it announced it had taken up 80,000 sq ft of commercial space within The Harbourfront Landmark luxury residential development in Kowloon, in what Campfire said is one of Hong Kong's biggest co-working deals to date.
Co-working spaces are in demand here, with more firms and developers, such as CapitaLand, Lendlease and Keppel Land, making a foray into the business.
A Colliers International report in September on flexible working spaces found there is now about 2.7 million sq ft of flexible workspace across Singapore, nearly triple the roughly one million sq ft here as at the end of 2015.
Rates for shared workspaces vary - for instance, locations in the central area tend to be more expensive. Generally, hot-desking in the Central Business District could cost about $400 monthly, but a dedicated desk could be $700 or more a month.
Correction note: An earlier version of the article misstated the name of Campfire Collaborative Spaces. We are sorry for the error.
