The owners of a coworking business are closing their two locations in Honolulu at the end of this month. The move will end memberships for 500 people.
Hub Coworking Hawaiʻi has operated for nearly a decade in Honolulu's Kakaʻako neighborhood.
Its space on Queen Street across from Whole Foods Market has 18,000 square feet on two floors with 51 offices. Its Waikīkī coworking space in the International Market Place opened in 2022.
But now the owners are getting ready to close both spaces at the end of the month. It means memberships will end for 500 people who use the spaces to work remotely or run their small businesses.
Hub Coworking co-founder Nam Vu said the decision to shut down came with the end of the lease in Kakaʻako, which was just too costly to renew.
Vu said coworking spaces are a difficult business model, especially here in Hawaiʻi because of the costs.
That's especially true if the coworking space doesn't own the building, which adds a challenge for cash flow.
Vu said most coworking operators have stopped entering standard leases, instead doing some kind of revenue share or operating the space as a building owner.
Hub Coworking is still managing the Entrepreneurs Sandbox in Kakaʻako, which is owned by the state's Hawaiʻi Technology Development Corporation. But Vu is not sure for how long.
Meanwhile, he's searching for options to continue operating Hub. He said one thing to consider is going virtual, which is what some coworking spaces on the U.S. mainland have done after shutting down.
He said they're also considering a partnership if they can find another space where the conditions are right.
