Last week, co-living company Common announced a request for proposals asking for developers, property owners, cities, counties, and states to make the case for the company to launch a new type of living and remote working hub in their area.
The idea is to create a new type of housing arrangement in an ‘underrated’ city, one that blends Common’s existing style of co-living with a focus on remote workers and spaces that support the push to work-from-home across the country.
Common Proposes Accommodations that Support Remote Workers
Common’s Request for Proposals specifies a housing arrangement that can house at least 300 people in whatever style the applicant would prefer. The proposal can house individuals or families, and while there is no requirement for how the project should look, all proposals should be unified in their focus on supporting remote workers.
Common has chosen a series of advisors that include former government officials, business professionals and venture capitalists that will choose the winning location in January of 2021. Common will then partner with the winners to help design the final project, with a potential opening date in 2022 or 2023.
Common Wants to Bring Economic Development to ‘Overlooked” Cities
The company is targeting areas that could support rents of around $1200 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. Part of the project’s goal is to get high-skilled tech workers to consider living in less dense urban areas, bringing economic development to new parts of the country.
“One thing we’ve been good at at Common is getting people who never would have lived in a certain neighborhood to live in that neighborhood”
Brad Hargreaves, Common founder and CEO
Common makes it clear that these spaces should not be all inclusive, incentivizing its residents to go out to support and enjoy the local economy.
Breaking ground on a new type of co-living and co-working space might seem foolish amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the company says that, if all goes well, the world should be moving beyond the pandemic.
Common denies the similarities, but the project harkens back to Amazon’s nationwide HQ2 search back in 2018, pitting cities and municipalities against each other for the opportunity to host a new Amazon headquarters. The company would be wise to avoid this comparison, as the move by Amazon was widely panned as an unnecessary for a company with their resources and a waste of taxpayer money.
