Preamble
The coworking space is competitive and two ways a space could stand out is to be a host of interesting events, and to be located near public transport. [This is a casual, meandering post about spaces, mobility and conservation.]
Engaging Events
A space can market itself socially by hosting engaging events. Doing so associates it with being compelling and also draws audiences and word-of-mouth. Conversely, an event when hosted at a well-regarded space, gets a glow from the space. For example, a person who is undecided whether to attend an event, may do so because the event space has in the past hosted pertinent, useful events.
Outstanding Location
Last week, Shopify and associates hosted a
meetup at
Found8, a new coworking space in KL. By all accounts, the event was a success with full house of 200+ audience. Remarkably, Found8 is located
in KL Sentral (KL's grand central railway station), at a prime, public-facing space. Kudos to Found8 for eagle-eyed property spotting.
Prime Sentral
Being a popular destination and transit location, all retail spaces at Sentral have been taken up by ticketing, banks, convenience stores and eateries. There might still be two prime, vacant spaces left 1) the retail space at the departure lounge of the KL-Ipoh express recently vacated by a book shop 2) the office spaces next to the ETS ticket counters. Not sure if these are on the market, interested parties may enquire
here.
Property Play
A short distance from Sentral is the grand, old, colonial-era,
KL railway station (which KL Sentral superseded). The station is near a Bus-LRT-MRT hub and is largely unused (though there might be
plans to spruce it up). The old station could be prime real-estate if restored, taking a leaf from HK's
MTR: not only is the highly regarded MTR not subsidised, it pays
dividends (
vid) to its investors, which include the HK government.
ECRL & HSR
MTR's experience suggests the
ECRL (MY's East-West railway line) might be able to pay for itself partially if not wholly by being real estate savvy. Perhaps future development in the hinterland could be restricted to the ECRL corridor which would be a green boost. [On a related
HSR (KL-SG express rail) note, wouldn't it be useful if the HSR's (if it goes ahead) southern terminus is
Tanjong Pagar in the city centre? It would be a plus for the HSR and SG's
downtown and
waterfront.]
Green Corridor
The ECRL will be the third major east-west bisection of MY's north-south
central forest spine after the East-West highway and the Karak-East Coast Highway. How to maintain green continuity for fauna and flora? One wild possibility is tp invite CN, JP, EU, US, businesses etc to sponsor corridors with naming rights. Imagine: EU-Mercedes
Belum Corridor, CN-JP-KR Friendship
Krau Corridor or Sime-Darby-Khazanah
Ledang Corridor.
Post Image
The image shows the lobby at the main entrance of Sentral. Found8 is located at the space shown in the background, right opposite the food court and a floor above the ETS ticketing counters.
