Gather putting finishing touches on new Innsbrook coworking space

Gather West End, the coworking chain’s latest location, is preparing to officially open next month in Innsbrook. Pictured are the location’s community managers Emma Olson and Gabi Rios-Hernandez in the front-desk area.  (Images courtesy of Gather)

Construction is nearing completion and the first few tenants have begun to move into the region’s newest Gather coworking space.

Gather West End, a 19,000-square-foot shared office space at 4101 Cox Road in Innsbrook, is being slowly unveiled ahead of its official opening next month.

The new outpost is the brand’s first location to open since it expanded into Midlothian in late 2020, and the second Gather to open in western Henrico.

The Innsbrook location can accommodate more than 340 members and will have nearly 90 private offices, eight conference rooms and common areas. Other features include a training room and a dedicated video-and-podcasting space.

The new location, which was still under construction last week, is on the second floor of the Highwoods Properties-owned office building at Cox Road and Innslake Drive. It’s close to the Gather in West Broad Village, which co-owner James Crenshaw said has had high demand since it opened in 2018.

A rendering of the front-desk area of Gather West End. The new coworking space occupies a 19,000-square-foot space with nearly 90 offices, common areas, meeting rooms and other facilities.

Crenshaw said that demand at that location motivated the interest in opening another location nearby.

“It’s only a mile and half away, right? But that location has been full with a wait list practically since we opened,” Crenshaw said.

The second Henrico spot features an updated design layout with a wider range of office sizes, giving members the ability to remain part of Gather as their businesses grow.

“Here, we have a much more widespread mix (of office sizes) … because we found over the years that someone might start off with a one-person and they grow, or they might start off with a four-person and they grow, and they don’t really want to leave Gather, but they have to leave because we don’t have a big enough space for them,” Crenshaw said.

The under-construction cafe area at Gather West End. The new location is the eighth outpost of the locally based coworking company, and is opening in response to demand in western Henrico.

Annual memberships at Gather start at $250 a month. It also offers a monthly pay-as-you-go plan that starts at $95, according to the company’s website. Like Gather’s other coworking spaces, the new Henrico outpost will have a communal kitchen and be a venue for professional and social events for members.

Among Gather West End’s members are the Henrico EDA Global Business Gateway initiative, Goodman Management and the Red Door Guys.

Gather’s membership includes remote workers from out-of-town companies, which has been a growing segment amid the recent rise of remote work, as well as small firms, contractors and large companies that use the coworking spaces as local offices.

“We have a good number of enterprise or Fortune 500 companies that have space, as well as freelancers or entrepreneurs who are just starting up,” he said.

Crenshaw said the volume of the latter type of member tends to grow in times of economic turmoil, and he felt that accordingly, Gather was in a good place to weather fallout from economic uncertainty spurred by recent trade policy moves by the Trump administration.

“We always like to think of ourselves as well-positioned for economic uncertainty, because that brings change. People are going to start new ventures or new businesses and they’re going to come to us to launch those,” Crenshaw said.

A rendering of Gather West End’s cafe area.

The Innsbrook office is Gather’s eighth location since it launched in Richmond in 2014. Its other locations are in the Scott’s Addition and Arts District neighborhoods of Richmond, as well as in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Newport News. The company says it has more than 3,000 active members.

Gather’s owners are Crenshaw, Doug White and Polly White, as well as Andy Beach and Jeff Bunch of UrbanCore Construction. Duke Dodson, a co-founder of the concept, is no longer a co-owner of the company.

UrbanCore is the general contractor on the Innsbrook location, which is on track to cost $3.9 million to open. Tymoff & Moss Architects designed the new space, while Campfire & Co. is handling the interior design. The project is financed with a loan from Atlantic Union Bank.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for Gather West End is planned for May 20, which is also slated to be the location’s formal opening day.

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