Coworking company Industrious will take over the remaining half of Centro Ybor’s former movie theater, which announced its closure last June.
The 45,000-square-foot building will be renovated and turned into a coworking space with private office rentals, and will be available to the public in late 2020.
Renovations to the old Centro Ybor theater will include installing large windows, among other stylistic changes to create an open, collaborative space.
In a press release, Industrious Florida area manager Jen Reilly Kelmer said the demand for another coworking space in Tampa has been high since the opening of their first space in downtown Tampa's SunTrust Financial Centre — they had to expand into the second floor shortly after opening in 2017.
“The market demand in Tampa for the Industrious product has been strong from the start,” Kelmer said in an official statement. “Ybor City is also home to a budding film and creative industry which makes it the perfect place for this unique movie theater conversion.”
Instead of a traditional lease, Industrious is entering a partnership with the Tampa-based Third Lake Capital, which owns Centro Ybor. Industrious will sign a property lease agreement with landlords to operate their coworking space within their buildings. This partnership that avoids fixed-lease payments and allows “Industrious to operate in a more capital-efficient manner."
“Third Lake is excited about the partnership with Industrious,” said Robert Forsythe, president and COO at Third Lake. “The Centro Ybor project will be transformative for Centro Ybor and Ybor City bringing hundreds of additional professionals each day which will positively impact local businesses.”
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This article appears in Nov 21-28, 2019.