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Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
- Proximity announced the launch of Proximity Protect, a specialty, nationwide insurance brokerage.
- The first-of-its-kind brokerage solves a gap in flexible workspace coverage and meets increased safety and security demands across the industry.
- Proximity Protect offers policies nationwide through direct appointments with A-rated and admitted insurers.
MONTROSE, COLO. — Workspace management software company Proximity Space Inc., announced today the launch of Proximity Protect, a specialty, nationwide insurance brokerage that provides coverage for coworking and flex space operators, members and tenants. The new offering addresses a glaring need in the coworking and flex industry to reduce business risk for space owners and managers and provides an easier, more streamlined approach to getting proper coverage in place. Proximity Protect is the nation’s first brokerage to fully specialize in insurance for flexible workspaces and their members.
As a relatively new asset class, flexible workspace has rapidly outpaced advances in commercial insurance offerings, leaving operators with a lack of options for coverage, carriers and competitive pricing. Proximity Protect is designed to help space owners take a comprehensive approach to risk management and provides access to tailored insurance programs that address the unique risks of operating in a flexible workspace environment.
Proximity provides a full suite of operations technology to hundreds of flexible workspaces that rent offices, desks, meeting rooms and event space to more than 100,000 members in the Proximity Network. As a large segment of the country’s workforce prepares to exit their homes and return to offices, the demand for flexible workspace is expected to dramatically increase among employers that will enable long-term flexible and remote work.
“The two themes I’m hearing repeatedly from the country’s companies are safety and security,” says Josh Freed, CEO of Proximity. “These are hurdles everyone is going to face as the country returns to work. It’s become clear that there’s a need for experts and solutions in the field of risk mitigation and management in the flex industry.”
Last year Proximity hired risk management veteran David Young, who has spent the last decade as a lecturer with the CU Denver Business School teaching for the risk management and insurance degree program. Young brings to Proximity more than 30 years of commercial insurance experience developing tailored programs for large groups and Fortune 500 corporate clients addressing current and emerging key risks.
“Our goal is to educate the entire insurance industry on the coworking and flex industry,” says Young, who serves as president of Proximity Protect. “The insurance industry can be slow to innovate which leads to risks simply being declined or inadequate coverage is provided for the space operator. We’re here to advocate for the industry and provide innovative solutions that so far, no one has managed to offer.”
Previous program attempts in the coworking industry largely focused on partnerships with third-party agencies who were tapped to provide group discounts but unable to provide industry-specific coverage.
By leveraging the size of the Proximity Network, Proximity Protect offers policies nationwide through direct appointments with A-rated and admitted insurers.
“We’ve worked to create a specialty insurance brokerage with the sole purpose of providing solutions at scale to every operator and member of the spaces in our network,” says Freed. “There’s no reason spaces need to continue taking on the risk for most or all of their members.”
The Protect rollout includes new insurtech features that enable space owners and managers to designate which types of memberships are required to carry insurance and to automatically collect, track and manage member insurance policies and certificates in the Proximity platform.
Policies currently available through the Proximity Protect program include property, general liability, workers’ compensation, employment practices liability and cyber liability. Coverage is available for coworking and flex spaces, as well as businesses that operate within these shared workspaces. More information is available at www.proximity.space/protect.
About Proximity
Proximity is the workspace management platform that connects people and places. Coworking and flexible workspace operators use Proximity to manage memberships, check-ins, reservations, conference rooms, digital door access, Wi-Fi control, billing and events. Hundreds of workspace locations in the Proximity Network are accessible to remote companies, distributed teams and entrepreneurs around the world. Learn more at www.proximity.space.
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