A coworking space is meeting needs and filling coffee cups of entrepreneurs in St. Joseph.

CoJoe opened January 31st at 518 Felix St. and features space for rent including table space in an open coworking space or private, furnished offices on a month-to-month or more long-term basis. A conference room also is available to rent by the hour or by the day for important meetings.

“Coworking spaces have opened up all across America and we definitely wanted to be able to provide something like that in St. Joe and test it out and see if we have a market for it,” said Kristie Arthur, St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce Director of Workforce Development. “We really feel like there’s really more opportunity than we know so far.”

Arthur said there have been at least 100 people from a variety of business backgrounds that have come through CoJoe over the past month for short or long term needs and meetings.

“There’s kind of two aspects… looking for those people that need a place to work every once in awhile, they work from home, they want to get out or they are salespeople that need a place to stop by,” Arthur said. “We have access to coffee, you get free WiFi, copy machine access and if you are an entrepreneur and you’re looking for advice, there’s lot of folks that are associated with CoJoe that can get you to the right people if they don’t know how to help you.”

Kyle Kormeier is the Lead Pastor at Renovation Church in St. Joseph. Kormeier said he hasn’t had an office for over three years, since starting Renovation Church, and has been working from home or at coffee shops. With the church growing over the years, he and the associate pastor at Renovation Church had been looking for an office space in St. Joseph.

“I knew immediately that (CoJoe) was a good fit. For us, it’s really helped us to be significantly more productive in how much we can get done, the quality of what we are getting done… because we’re able to have a lot more of that face-to-face time that is really important for any team,” Kormeier said. “Even if I could have an office at our church, I think I’d probably still choose to come down here… There’s so many benefits to coming to a workspace like this and that’s why I want to see more of these offices filled up because I love working with people. There’s just something about being with other entrepreneurs and professionals… creativity feeds creativity and that’s been one of the greatest benefits of being here.”

For more information on CoJoe, click here.