Detroit’s entrepreneurial community is getting another boost. The coworking space Bamboo Detroit announced Tuesday that they’re expanding to 6,000 feet on Washington Boulevard in downtown Detroit.
They’ll moving into the Julian C. Madison Building at 1420 Washington Boulevard, steps from Grand Circus Park. This is double the size of their current space on Brush Street by Ford Field.
Bamboo is not only the city’s largest coworking space by membership, it’s also very diverse, with 40% of membership being women, 40% are minorities and 40% live in the city itself. These kinds of statistics are almost unheard of in the mostly male, mostly white startup space you might see lampooned in TV shows like Silicon Valley or books like Disrupted.
To achieve this, Bamboo has actively reached out into the neighborhoods, recently opening a satellite office on Mack between Chalmers and Alter as well as foster an family-style culture with not just networking events, but potluck dinners and the like. They also keep their entry level price point affordable for early stage companies at $99 a month with a year commitment, or $149 month-to-month, for a basic shared desk.
Build out is expected to be completed and the doors open on the new space in January 2017. The new space will handle up to 300 entrepreneurs.
“Our city is filled with trailblazers. Along with support from other Detroit entrepreneurs, we’re building a new and innovative space to meet their needs. Bamboo Detroit provides a great workspace and a built-in network of colleagues to assist new and growing companies with almost every facet of their business,” said Co-founder & CEO Amanda Lewan.
Where the old location was all shared desks, the new space has room for team offices and dedicated desks as well. In short, room for companies to grow.
Bamboo Detroit’s new space is being built in partnership with one their locally owned members. Bamboo member NXT Design, a commercial interior design firm, has created a custom and high quality interior design solution for the new creative space.
Gigabit internet will be provided by Rocket Fiber. Rightsize Facility, a nationwide office interiors and facilities services firm, has outfitted the new space with flexible furniture including
new glass modular offices, collaborative workstations and seating.
The expansion of Bamboo is privately funded with partial grant support from Motor City Match.
