Akfen Holding Board Member Pelin Akin Ozalp, remarked that their concept ‘Levent Loft Station’, which brings classic meeting rooms, work places and even coffee shops and restaurants together, has gathered a lot of positive attention and they plan to make use of this experience in other Loft projects.

SHARED OFFICES

(co-working spaces) have become an important real estate trend in recent years and they are used by 1.7 million people around the world while this number increases every year in double digits. In line with the parallel growing demand in Turkey, some investors attempt to enhance these areas. Levent Loft Station, a 500 square meter building with an investment of 2 million Turkish Liras on the ground floor of the Levent Loft project in Istanbul, has begun serving as the latest example of new generation of shared offices.

In Levent Loft Station, equipped with the latest technology in the heart of Istanbul, hourly or daily rental options are available for shared offices with restaurant and coffee shop serving these areas under the same roof.

AN ECONOMIC AND FLEXIBLE WORKING SPACE

Akfen Holding Board Member Pelin Akin Ozalp said that these spaces were initially designed only for the offices in Levent Loft, however, soon, the spaces drew attention even from outside of the building. She told us that, after that, they modified the meeting rooms and working spaces so that the spaces meet the needs of people coming outside of the building, and said:

“We wanted to try a different approach for the shared office concept, which continues gaining popularity. Levent Loft Station offers a comfortable and modern working space at the hearth of Istanbul and is preferred not only by self-employed individuals but also by employees from large-scale companies. In Turkey, these working spaces mostly cater to young employees and students, however, by offering foo dservice and equipping these spaces with the latest technology, we also cater to companies.”

Pelin Akin Ozalp underlined that renting shared offices is preferred due to economic and flexible working space they offered, and said that Levent Loft Station draws interest thanks to its modern design that includes spaces both for working and for socializing.

A KITCHEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OFFICE

Pelin Akin Ozalp told us that they installed a restaurant named Loft Kitchen and a branch of the coffee shop chain, Cup of Joy, in the middle of the shared offices, and said: “In other office spaces, treats are limited with coffee, sandwiches and cookies. Upon demand, we offer our guests home cooked meals, composed of organic vegetables and fruits that are in season, and support healthy eating habits, which are becoming more and more popular in Turkey. We serve food to meeting rooms and tables at breakfast and lunch.”

THE CONCEPT WILL BE IMPLEMENTED IN OTHER LOFT PROJECTS

Pelin Akin Ozalp remarked that, in the last 3 month period, Levent Loft Station has been in demand and proved itself as the right model, and said: “Thus, we decided to implement the same structure in future Loft projects. Our residence projects in Ankara, Incek Loft and Bulvar Loft, will house a significant number of people. We would like to implement Levent Loft Station model in these projects.”

Ozalp highlighted that the technological infrastructure consists a significant portion of the Levent Loft Station investment and said: “To offer to latest technology to the people who use our spaces, we implemented writing boards that can automatically take notes and share them quickly. These also offer our guests opportunities to organize international meetings and video conferences.”

1.7 MILLION PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD IS WORKING AT SHARED OFFICES

Year
Co-working spaces
Number of members
2015 8.900 545.000
2016 12.100 890.000
2017 15.500 1.270.000
2018 18.900 1.690.000

• According to the surveys, at the end of 2018, 1.7 million people will be working at 19 thousand shared offices around the world.

• Compared to the last year, number of ready-touse shared offices increased 30 percent.

• Average age of people using shared offices is 39.

• 51 percent of those who prefer the offices are self-employed, 49 percent are working in a firm.