Paul Bass Photos
It hasn’t fully sunk in yet for Giulia Gouge that the coworking community where she grew her online business is closing its doors next week, leaving 16 entrepreneurs to find shared space elsewhere in town.
That coworking community is called The Grove. Or it was called The Grove for most of its 10 years, before a rebranding as “Agora” in a last-ditch effort at survival.
Tenants like Gouge (pictured above) who rent offices or desks in the four-story, 14,000 square-foot co-working space at 760 Chapel St. have received notice that the doors are closing a week from Friday. (Renters of office space will have another week to clear out.)
“I’m disappointed I couldn’t make it work. It’s really good people here,” said Alex Cutler, who took over the space a month and a half ago but couldn’t attract enough new members to meet the bills.
The Grove originally opened its doors in 2010 around the corner at 71 Orange St. It offered often-isolated entrepreneurs and freelancers inexpensive desks, coffee, and wifi — plus a community of fellow “creatives” to share ideas or chatter with and join in regular events like Wined-Down Wednesdays, Whiskey Fridays, and a book club.
Workspaces Thursday at the Grove.
The community’s success caught the eye of state economic developoment officials, who saw a model to replciate elsewhere. The state picked it as one four “hubs” statewide in which to invest $5 million over five years. With the money, the Grove moved into the larger quarters on Chapel in 2013.
Back on Orange, Kevin Ewing brought a new entrepreneurial venture to part of the former space. Called Baobob Studios, it aims to make New Haven a podcasting hub.
Meanwhile, at least six other coworking spaces popped up in town. (Click here to read about the second wave in town.) Then, over the past year, a bigger, shinier coworking and innovation center called The District opened in Fair Haven and became the new mecca for statewide new-economy policymakers, pilgrims and prognosticators.
Slate Ballard founded the Grove. It became a place where those sought-after unplanned interactions occurred between entrepreneurial minded people seeking to build businesses in the new economy.
One of those people was Gouge, who was starting an online marketing company when she moved into the Grove. She has stayed ever since.
She found herself taking on projects jointly with a Grove pal named Mason Rabinowitz, an ad copywriter. A web designer named George Vasilopoulos joined the Grove„ as well, and ended up working on projects with the other two.
“We keep doing all this stuff together. Why don’t we see what it looks like to have a marketing agency?” Gouge recalled them saying. In 2017, they launched Agents of Branding, which they have continued to run out of the Grove.
Which last year became “Agora.”
Ballard was looking to sell the coworking space last year because he had cofounded a new live music venue around the corner called The State House. A team of punk rock game designers named Matt Fantastic, Trish Loter and Alex Cutler — who already had a business there called Elm City Games — bought the Grove in September, renamed it Agora, and sought to revive it with a focus on recruiting artists and nonprofits and hosting movie screenings.
At the time, the Grove/Agora was only about 60 percent rented, Cutler said in an interview Thursday in the largely barren facility. About a dozen renters occupied mini-offices for $500 to $2,000 a month. Twenty to 30 others rented desks for $200-$300 a month.
Two months ago, the Agora troika parted ways. Two of the members moved Elm City Games to Orange Street — in fact, to part of the original Grove (where the name remains atop one of the doors).
“I took over full ownership. It was my intention to turn things around, get people in the space,” said Cutler, who said he had been the original silent partner who put up all the money for the purchase.
He could not reverse the trend of tenants moving to other spaces, especially DISTRICT (which, according to co-founder David Salinas, already has a waiting list). “DISTRICT killed us,” Cutler said.
Also, he said, summer is a tough time of year (as opposed to the fall) to attract new renters. As of Thursday, he said the space had four office-renters left and 12 desk-renters.
Aaron Goode (pictured), a longtime community member, offered a wistful, philosophical take on the pending closing as he worked on his laptop Thursday on Agora’s second floor.
Goode, who sells rare books, said he originally worked at the Grove several days a week. He enjoyed the social gatherings and the book club.
“I’ve always liked the community-building vision of it,” he said. “It’s had an important role in creating a community in the Ninth Square and Downtown. I’ve met a lot of people and developed a lot of relationships that will last long after the doors close here.”
The events have tapered off in recent years. Goode, who travels regularly for work, has been showing up more like once a week now. But he continued wanting to pay $89 a month to belong in order to “support a cause and a vision of community.” He said he has been “paying for nostalgia, what it used to be.” And he hasn’t minded. “It’s like why I buy books at a local independent bookstore.”
On the one hand, Goode said, “it’s sad to see it go.” On another, “not everything has to last forever.”
“It shows how rapidly this part of the economy is evolving,” city deputy economic development chief Steve Fontana observed. “Everything changes quickly.”
Giuilia Gouge is still adjusting to the latest reality. She expects the finality of the Grove/Agora closing to hit home next week when old and present members gather for a final Wined-Down Wednesday event. “That’s when the emotions are going to be palpable.”
She and her team at Agents of Branding have found a new space to rent. Wouldn’t you know it? They, too, are moving back to where it all began — in part of the original Grove space on Orange. Where the innovation beat goes on and comes full circle.