By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Katie Spondouris has one of the best views of the city from outside the window behind her desk.
It offers a bird’s eye view of the Rock River, the Iconic Energy tower and the future Rockford Public Library that’s under construction. She eats lunch each day in front a window that overlooks the river and Prairie Street Brewing Co.
Spondouris is a website developer for Farm It Out! Design, a graphic design and marketing company owned by her mother. But the business doesn’t have a physical home base, instead Spondouris has taken residency in Rockford’s newest coworking offices.
“I just wanted to get out of the house, instead of working from home,” said Spondouris, who lives in Rockton. “I found this space online and it’s been amazing.”
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MPOWR Coworking + Collaboration Center quietly started taking in clients roughly two months ago, and Spondouris was one of the first to rent a workspace. The center is on the fifth floor of the SupplyCore Inc. building, 303 N. Main St., across from the historic Coronado Performing Arts Center in downtown. On Wednesday evening it celebrated its grand opening.
“It’s really nice to be able to have such close access to cute little restaurants and coffee bars and stuff like that,” Spondouris said. “It’s really nice being up here on the fifth floor and seeing the city.”
Renting out a workspace starts at $125 a month, and private offices can be booked for $350 a month or more depending on the size. You can also just pop in for a day for $25.
“Leasing office space is really cost-prohibitive, and so we have affordable private offices and cubicles to serve their needs,” said Nellie Miller, director of marketing for SupplyCore, a sister business of MPOWR. “Or maybe someone that’s just working on a project, and you want a place to just get away and focus and be more productive.”
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Miller said the space is ideal for entrepreneurs, small businesses, remote professionals and freelancers. The goal is to foster innovation, collaboration and a sense of community.
Peter Provenzano, the president and CEO of SupplyCore, said he hopes it helps bring additional foot traffic to downtown once more workers take up residence at the center. Provenzano has a similar placemaking mindset with another related venture, Rockford City Market, which helps incubate small businesses with its weekly outdoor market in the spring and summer.
“There’s still a lot of great amenities and we’ve got to keep that going,” Provenzano said. “If we can bring some more foot traffic down here and try to leverage the space in that way, bring people together, socialization, all of those kinds of things, that’s really what this is about.”
The center has 13,500 square feet of space and 13 private offices, in addition there are multiple cubicles and desks in flexible work spaces.
The center was born out of the pandemic, when Provenzano said many SupplyCore employees turned to remote work and the company didn’t need as much space in its downtown building. But remote work doesn’t always mean working from home, he said, and some find themselves more productive and creative in this setting.
“This is the work environment of the future, whether it’s here or somewhere else,” Provenzano said. “A lot of folks are working differently today than they did before. We don’t really ever see it going back the other way.”
Fast facts | MPOWR Coworking + Collaboration Center
Where: SupplyCore, 303 N. Main St., Rockford
Cost: Daily desks start at $25 or you can rent a flexible worksplace for $125 per month. See more membership options here.
On the web: mpowr.com/coworking-center
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.