Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Clark.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nick. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I graduated from SMU in 2005 with a degree in Real Estate Finance. I immediately started my career in commercial real estate and spent 7 years working for various owners on project leasing/management assignments in Dallas. In the four years I spent post-graduation at Pillar Commercial Real Estate, I saw a shift in workspace needs due to the recession and an evolving workplace culture. In 2011, I discovered coworking through a tenant rep client, and I loved it enough to immediately resign from my company and launch Common Desk.
I launched the first Common Desk in October 2012 in Deep Ellum off of my personal savings account and a ton of support from friends and family. Fortunately the bootstrapping paid off, and almost six years later, Common Desk is now a robust brand with four locations, multiple service offerings, our own coffee shop brand, an unbeatable staff, and some of the best hospitality you can find in an office space.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Definitely not. There were so many moments where I thought I’d have to give up, either because of lack of funds, lack of sleep, or lack of direction. But every single time, something happened to keep me going. One of my favorite stories to tell is about the chairs at our original Deep Ellum location. During the final days of construction, we were over budget and had missed our initial deadline for n opening date. Due to this, funds had dwindled down to less than $5,000 to complete the project. Thankfully, everything was paid for and in place except for office chairs. For some stupid reason, I didn’t think about how expensive 100 office chairs would be. At $100 per chair, that’s another 10,000 needed to make sure all seats were in place on opening day.
To put it nicely, I was freaking out. I perfectly remember my mom visiting the construction site that day and talking me off the cliff (again). Her response to the chair crisis was that she was heading home to pray about it. I remember thinking, are you crazy? I needed her to rent a U-Haul truck and drive around town picking p every $15 office chair at garage sales that she could find. Oddly enough, a real estate buddy called me an hour later out of the blue to inform me that he had 115 retro looking orange office hairs chilling in a vacancy at one of his buildings. He said that if I could come get them, the only thing he wanted in return was a margarita machine rented for a party he was throwing for his tenants. The orange chairs that everybody has now enjoyed ended up costing about $5 per chair.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Common Desk – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Born and raised in Dallas, Common Desk is a tech-enabled hospitality company that makes office buildings feel and operate like cutting-edge boutique hotels. We spend our days helping professionals of all kinds experience the work they do through our shared office spaces, curated events, coffee program, and experience offerings. We specialize in coworking, and we use the approach of “Offspitality” to set ourselves apart from the rest of the shared office industry. I’m sure you’re wondering what the heck “Offspitality” is; Offspitality is a philosophy that believes professionals deserve to experience a hospitable, turn-keyed office environment that brings innovative amenities and services to their fingertips, making their work more productive, interactive, memorable, and enjoyable.
As the CEO and Founder of Common Desk, I think the thing that I’m most proud of concerning this company is our staff; we struck gold finding the staff members that we have on our team, and without them, our brand would be nothing. Our brand is known for being one of the most hospitable coworking brands, both in Dallas and beyond, and you can’t have hospitality without great people who have a passion for community. Our coworking spaces are warm, welcoming, energetic, and alternative and we love going against the grain and doing crazy things that people would never expect to see in an “office” environment.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We’ve got some pretty big plans for the future up our sleeves. Our brand already has a strong presence across DFW, but we feel like the Metroplex still isn’t fully covered when it comes to coworking; so we’re planning on opening more spaces across DFW in the near future to continue to give DFW professionals an affordable and experiential office solution. We’re also looking to other markets both within Texas and outside of Texas, and we’re gearing up for our first out of state expansion to happen soon.
Last Fall, we acquired a local coffee brand and rebranded it to be Fiction Coffee; we’re getting ready to incorporate Fiction Coffee micro units in existing Common Desk locations, as well as opening more brick and mortar shops in our favorite local neighborhoods like Bishop Arts. We’re also growing our service offerings to include more tech and more experiences across the board.
Pricing:
- Shared Membership: $225/month
- Nights & Weekends Membership: $110/month
- Dedicated Desk Membership: $450-$500/month
- Private Office Membership: $900/month+
- Conference Room Rental: $100/hour
- Common Desk – Anywhere Airstream Rental: $1300/day
Contact Info:
- Address: Common Desk – Deep Ellum: 2919 Commerce Street, Dallas, TX 75226
Common Desk – Oak Cliff: 633 West Davis St, Dallas, TX 75208
Common Desk – Granite Park: 5830 Granite Parkway Suite 100, Plano, TX 75024
Common Desk – Fort Worth: 2833 Crockett St, Fort Worth, TX 76107 - Website: www.thecommondesk.com
- Phone: 214-216-6913
- Email: info@thecommondesk.com
- Instagram: @commondesk
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CommonDesk/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCommonDesk
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/common-desk-deep-ellum-dallas
Image Credit:
Side B Productions
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