Beginning April 15, 2023, Hangr Coworks and Palette Offer Reciprocal Membership to its members.

Available for full-time members at Hangr Coworks in Clifton Park, and the Palette Community in Saratoga Springs and Schenectady, active members are now offered a reciprocal membership with Palette and Hangr Coworks, which allows for up to two visits per month to Palette’s or Hangr Coworks OPEN SEATING coworking spaces during standard business hours. (Subject to availability).

This will allow for more connection, collaboration and community between our organizations and we are here for that!

Members may visit the PARTNER page to request their Guest Pass. 

Headshot Mini Sessions - January 19th

Headshot Minis will happen one day per month at a discounted rate of $99.

You get a 20-30 minute mini headshot & selection session with the Flight Creative Photo Team. At the end of your session you will get to see your headshots instantly on an iPad and select your 10 favorite images to be shared to you in high resolution. 

We’ve noticed, after years of shooting dozens and dozens of headshots – is that some people just need a super quick 20 minute update and not the full hour or the chats or all the posing or the multiple outfits. Some just need that one good shot and then need to race back to work. There is only time for one outfit with a choice of several standard backgrounds. These are quick and easy headshots for the person that doesn’t need or want spend hours at a photo studio.

There are upgrade options just like in all of our sessions. You will have the option to purchase additional "retouched" images for $39 apiece or 4 for $129.  

Next Session is January 19th, 2023 - Starting at 9:30am at Hangr Coworks in Clifton Park. 

Reserve Your 30-Minute Session Today

A $25.00 deposit is required at the time of booking. This booking deposit is refundable if you need to cancel more than 24-hours before your scheduled session. No refunds will be given if you cancel less than 24-hours before your scheduled booking.

Paul Drake, a health care salesman, dreads the thought of commuting back to his office in Albany after 19 months of working from home in Malta, N.Y.

But Mr. Drake, 33, also wants a break from overhearing his wife's calls and a better place to meet with clients than the local Starbucks. So he signed up here at Hangr, a new company that has opened a large, modern and friendly co-working space, in Clifton Park, close to his work territory.

“It would take a couple more zeros on the paycheck,” he said, “to get me back to commuting into downtown four or five days a week.”

More than a year and a half ago, the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented disruption to the daily routines of office work, keeping millions of employees in their homes.

Now, as the pandemic crawls out of its second year, the future of work is still up in the air as many companies have embraced a hybrid model, allowing employees to split their workweek between the office and home, with little clarity about the timing of a mandatory return.

In this uncertainty, a growing number of start-ups, like Hangr, are betting that the pandemic has spawned a new kind of worker — one who will not be commuting into a central business district a few days a week but would still desire occasional office space closer to home for a distraction-free environment.

In the Capital District, possibly home to the country’s fastest growing co-working communities, coworking spaces are increasingly targeting the thousands of office workers who live in the suburbs.

Some developers who own Albany office buildings have scoffed at the idea that satellite workplaces will become a permanent alternative to working from home or from traditional offices, believing the hybrid model is a short-term trend.

Still, the emergence of co-working spaces in residential neighborhoods underscores the uncertain prospects for Albany’s office sector that supports a vast ecosystem of restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses.

Supporting this belief, around the country, the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue is partnering with coworking giant WeWork to turn parts of department stores into co-working spaces. Codi, a start-up founded in Berkeley, Calif., offers private homes as flexible working spaces. Industrious, a co-working company, has an office space inside a mall in Short Hills, N.J.

Hangr Coworks, founded by a group of local business owners, with its first co-working location in Clifton Park — has plans for future locations in other outlaying communities like Troy, Malta and Rensselaer, over the next few years. 

Hangr plans to lease vacant office spaces, targeting densely populated neighborhoods where local residents had long prepandemic commutes and few other co-working options. Users can pay as little as $25 for a daily membership, accessing a comfortable lounge areas or open seating or, for more regular demands, select a private desk option for less than $3 an hour with a monthly commitment.

“Certain real estate owners believe the only path to prosperity is to bring everybody back,” said Christine Smith, a Hangr co-founder. “I don’t follow that approach. If we’re thinking about attracting members to the region, this is more sustainable long-term.”

In Albany, the real estate industry has been eager for workers to return to office complexes. But many companies have discovered that they can operate with a smaller footprint as more jobs have become fully remote. Despite a recent uptick in demand for Corporate office leases, the availability of office space there is still near a record high.

We hope employees will use a co-working site on their work-from-home days and brushed off the possibility of employees working remotely part of the week after the pandemic, calling it “your alternate universe.”

In the Albany region, about 42 percent of workers were in the office in mid-October, according to Kastle Systems, a security company that tracks employee card swipes in office buildings. The percentage has climbed steadily since Labor Day, but is still half of what employers had predicted in a June.

A bigger reckoning around office space may unfold in the coming years, as an estimated 30 percent of leases at large Albany buildings will expire in 2023, according to the New York State Comptroller’s Office. One major question, economists say, is whether larger companies will hold onto their office space to guarantee seats for all employees, no matter how many days a week they come in.

For many employees, the reluctance to return comes down to the commute.

Workers in the Saratoga County region had the longest average one-way commute in the area at about 38 minutes, according to 2019 census data. About 23 percent of workers in the region commuted at least an hour each way.

In July, Dean Iacovetti, president at Vanta Partners, a tech-recruiting firm, relocated to Hangrs co-working space, closer to where he lives. He said he was reminded of the benefits whenever he visits the company’s former location, a round trip that can often take up to an hour during typical workday.

“I’m the only person in the suburbs who can just about walk to work,” said Tori Rankin, who works at the Clifton Park location every day with eight other Flight Creative employees.

Co-working spaces in the suburbs are particularly appealing to parents who want more separation between home and work, Hangr said. In its surveys of prospective members, the biggest complaints about working from home were the lack of space, unreliable internet, and noise (leaf blower day, in particular).

Juergen Klingenberg, Hangr co-founder, sees the company as a supplement, not a threat, to the traditional office building. In fact, Flight Creative Group, Klingenberg’s other venture started leasing office space within the Hangr Coworking space, moving his entire company from Saratoga Springs this summer. The company organizes its meetings and happy hours around Tuesday and Wednesdays, the designated days when every employee comes into the office.

“The office building is not going anywhere,” Klingenberg said. “We’re just going to use it differently.”

I, like many of my peers in the industry, have accepted that remote working is here to stay. However, the shift to hybrid working is now becoming a more permanent option for corporations across all industries. The opportunity for coworking is a viable alternative to working from home for professionals craving connection, productivity. and opportunity.

I often pose questions of what would be the long-term effects of working from home. How would a fully remote work structure impact a company after 5 years, or 10 years?

Love it or hate it, we must consider what a decade of working from home will look like, and what the CRE industry will look like if working from home stays without hybrid opportunities. I have enjoyed my time at my home office, but coworking spaces provide undeniable benefits to the organizations and employees who are without an office of their own.

Humans are social animals

This is the nature of humanity. We are social animals. With decades spent working in an office environment, the relationships I have built and the collaborative effort to make projects come to life were created within those four walls.

The need to connect, conversate, and understand each other in the workplace setting is not only an asset to the individual employee but for the entire business. Reimagining offices into coworking spaces gives us the opportunity to foster relationships and spark creativity that simply can’t be replicated virtually.

We’ve also learned that young professionals who began working during the pandemic have little-to-no office experience, and that can be a disservice to their individual growth. Last year’s Accenture survey found three in four Gen Zers (74%) want more opportunities to collaborate with colleagues face-to-face, a higher percentage than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.

A hybrid coworking setting creates a sense of learning and understanding for those new in their career, while providing a space for young professionals to learn about what it means to work in a corporate setting.

Office space with flexible structure   

In today’s working world, offices look very different from what they used to be. I have developed, built and invested in these spaces for decades, and I’ve seen the transition from bustling office buildings to Zoom home offices. The industry will continue shifting to meet the needs of businesses, but one thing is certain to remain – flexibility.

The office environment is there to provide support when you and your employees need it most for important client meetings, collaborative month-end planning or all employee meetings. Coworking spaces allow businesses without a full contract office lease to have the option to work in a structured environment.

They offer flexible structure, allowing employees to use the space when it’s most conducive for their work. Even simple advantages of conference rooms for meetings, communal space for collaboration and access to office supplies and meeting appropriate Zoom backgrounds all are investment in ensuring your employees have access to the spaces and tools they need to feel prepared and successful.

Promoting productivity

Productivity and efficiency are two words that will always be thrown into discussions addressing the benefits of remote work. However, the ability to work in a professional environment conducive to conducting business is proven to increase productivity for professionals.

According to Pew Research, workers with jobs that can be done from home who choose to go into their workplace cite preference and productivity as major reasons why they rarely or never work from home. And 61% cite feeling more productive at their workplace as a significant reason.

The habits I built and learned at the beginning of my career have stayed with me and allow me to mentor others to create a productive and efficient workplace. Adding coworking to a hybrid work model will enable employees to develop habits and routines centered around their workplace. Additionally, providing a space for employees to go into the office for collaborative work and in-person meetings sets them up for success in their day-to-day task completion.

A wider network for major meetings 

Don’t take your big clients to the local coffee shop when you have an office space to host them. We’ve all had to adjust to what major meetings look like over the past three years. But while some internal meetings can be held from a home office, this is simply unacceptable for bigger external meetings with clients, investors or partners.

Coworking elevates hybrid environments by helping us reinvest in our clients and employees to add structure to those essential meetings. The office space allows us to not only expand on deal flow opportunities, but to attract more talent and cultivate an environment where companies can have a more connective space.

Keep work at work; keep home at home

According to a Remote.co survey of 200 full-time remote workers, 40% said unplugging after work hours is the biggest pain point they encounter when working in their virtual environment. Remote workers are living in a gray area where they are unsure where work stops, and home life begins. It can feel like work never has an off switch for those employees who are fully remote.

Investing in a coworking space helps promote the separation between work and home, allowing employees to create better balance in their work and personal lives. We need to invest in our employees’ ability to unplug outside their workplace.

Original Article Published by Coworking Insights, November 14, 2022 - Written by Dale Watchowski