Three years after Boston’s Workbar announced a Staples partnership to put coworking its services into three stores, the companies are splitting up.
It is expected to announce that the Workbar locations within Staples’ Brighton, Norwood, and Danvers stores will close this spring as the office supplier launches its own coworking operation.
The end of this partnership shows the rapidly changing coworking market, which once geared services to startups and now mostly targets fast-growing companies.
Workbar managed the workspaces within Staples stores where they offered desks and small offices for freelancers and solo workers.
Now, Workbar chief executive Sarah Travers said the company is considering several new suburban locations.
Workbar says it is aiming to blanket the Greater Boston area in order to help companies who want to avoid downtown commutes.
“There’s a real need for this type of work environment in suburban areas,” said Travers. “Places like Newton and Needham, Waltham, all these areas are crying out for a Workbar,” she said.
Staples, on the other hand, is about to introduce its own coworking concept at its Brighton store.
