Co-working facilities in the suburbs
25N CoworkingLocations: 25 N. River Lane, Geneva; 3400 W. Stonegate Blvd., Unit 101, Arlington Heights
Pricing: $35 for a day pass; $335 for a punch card for 20 half days; $99 for five days per month; $265 to $415 a month depending on privacy and space needs
Contact: (630) 409-1030, hello@25ncoworking.com or 25ncoworking.com
Description: A suburban co-working leader, 25N opened its first location in Geneva in 2015 with open areas, dedicated desks and meeting spaces; moved to a larger Geneva space in December, then opened its second location in January in Arlington Heights.
Perfect for: Corporate employees who need a suburban satellite office; small businesses; sales professionals.
Selling point: "Corporations realize when they set up branch offices, a lot of things have to go into a facility to manage it - equipment, paper, ink, utilities, Wi-Fi, coffee," said Mara Hauser, founder and CEO. "In a co-working space, all your employees have to do is walk in the door, go in and do their work."
Elgin Technology CenterLocation: 73 S. Riverside Drive, third floor, Elgin
Pricing: $100 a month for open co-working, meeting room access and events; $200 a month for semiprivate office and private desk
Contact: (224) 325-4382, info@elgintech.org or www.elgintech.org
Description: A pioneer in suburban co-working since 2010, offers open, shared and private workspaces as well as incubator services including trainings, meetups and project demonstrations. The 2,500-square-foot space is soon to expand into another 5,000 square feet of remodeled space in the same building.
Perfect for: Software and hardware entrepreneurs, creatives,
Selling point: "Come in, meet other like-minded people, do work, talk with people who know the same lingo," said Michael Copeland, executive director.
Fox. BuildLocation: 15 S. Second St., second floor, St. Charles
Pricing: $60 a month for open co-working; $100 a month for private desk; $200 a month for double-sized private desk
Contact: (630) 935-4363 or fox. build
Description: Billed as a makerspace and hackerspace, this tech-oriented workshop has arduinos, Raspberry Pi computers, an X-carve machine, 3-D printers, a laser cutter and sponsorship from Dremel tools. A long wooden workbench forms the open co-working space while tools and private desks line the walls.
Perfect for: Software, hardware or computer engineers, web designers.
Selling point: "We look at it as more of a club," co-founder Tim Allen said. "There's a day crowd, a night crowd and a weekend crowd. The night crowd and weekend crowd works on hobbies and the day crowd is running their business."
Envisage CoworkingLocation: 11 Douglas Ave., Elgin
Pricing: $100 a month for open co-working; $300 a month for a private desk; $550 a month for a private office; $1,500 a month for a private office suite
Contact: (877) 313-9892 or envisagecoworking.com
Description: Property management firm PKE Enterprises operates Envisage as a professional workspace for solopreneurs or small teams. The firm also operates Shared Dream Kitchen in Lake in the Hills for food-related startups.
Perfect for: Consultants, insurance representatives, small business teams.
Selling point: "It's a solution for people looking to not work from home or to lower their actual rental cost," said Kevin Echevarria, manager of PKE Enterprises.
Rev3 Innovation CenterLocation: 1120 E. Diehl Road, Naperville, inside the Northern Illinois University Naperville campus
Pricing: $150 a month for co-working; $250 a month for team co-working; $500 for private office space; $900 a month for team offices
Contact: (630) 854-1607 or (630) 947-2999, John Wons at John@rev3dupage.com or Nic Zito at Nzito@choosedupage.com or rev3dupage.com
Description: When it opened in fall 2014, plans called for a small-scale manufacturing makerspace. But the focus shifted to mentorship, events, desks and offices for technological entrepreneurs.
Perfect for: Technology-oriented mobile entrepreneurs, small businesses, former corporate employees now freelancing or consulting.
Selling point: "We have put a big focus on building a very good ecosystem/community," said John Wons, director of community development. "We do that through having member-exclusive events and really trying to get the people who are current members to interact with each other."