Midwest Coworking Growth: What the February 2025 Numbers Mean for Builders

Yes—coworking expanded rapidly across the Midwest through February 2025. Yardi Matrix counted 1,121 Midwest locations, up 27.7% year over year, and 21.7 million square feet, up 28.1%. Those were the fastest regional growth rates in its March 2025 report, although the Midwest remained smaller than the Southeast and represented only about 14% of U.S. locations and 15% of coworking square footage.

For construction and commercial-property teams, the important distinction is between growth rate and market size. More Midwest projects are entering the pipeline, but the region is not yet the country’s largest coworking market. The figures below describe a snapshot through the end of February 2025, not a 2026 forecast.

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What the February 2025 data actually shows

Building Design + Construction reported the regional results on March 25, 2025, using Yardi Matrix’s Matrix Office National Report—March 2025, published March 19. The report measures coworking inventory through February 2025. Its central finding is that the Midwest outpaced every other U.S. region in year-over-year growth for both locations and square footage.

That finding is about the pace of change, not the number of spaces already operating. The Southeast still had the largest footprint. Treating “fastest-growing” as “largest” would give developers and contractors the wrong picture of demand.

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Nationally, coworking accounted for 2.0% of total office space, an increase of 30 basis points, or 0.30 percentage points, from the prior year. The Midwest’s 27.7% increase in locations and 28.1% increase in area therefore occurred within a broader U.S. expansion rather than in isolation.

Why the Midwest can lead growth while remaining smaller

Growth rates measure percentage change from a prior base. A region with fewer existing locations can post a larger percentage increase than a region with a much bigger inventory. The Southeast’s 1,960 locations and 33.3 million square feet exceeded the Midwest’s 1,121 locations and 21.7 million square feet in absolute terms, even though the Midwest led on the reported year-over-year rates.

This distinction matters when estimating construction opportunity. A high growth rate signals momentum and a potentially expanding project pipeline. A smaller absolute footprint means fewer total buildings, suites and square feet than in the leading region. Developers should use both measures when deciding whether to pursue a new build, conversion, renovation program or speculative flexible-office floor.

Space-size trends point to a mixed building strategy

Midwest locations edged larger

The average Midwest coworking location measured 19,313 square feet in February 2025, 70 square feet more than a year earlier. That is a modest increase, but it shows that regional growth was not produced solely by dividing every project into smaller units.

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The national average moved in the opposite direction

Across the United States, the average location fell by 1,524 square feet to 17,932 square feet. The contrast complicates any blanket claim that coworking spaces are uniformly shrinking. National operators may be adding smaller sites in some markets while Midwest inventory, in aggregate, is holding near the 19,000-square-foot range.

For design teams, the practical lesson is to avoid a single prototype. A 19,313-square-foot regional average is a planning reference, not a required building size. Existing floorplate depth, window lines, stairs, elevators, parking, fire separations and local zoning will determine whether a particular conversion can support a viable layout.

What the trend means for construction and real-estate teams

Conversions may be as important as ground-up projects

Rising coworking area can be delivered through new construction, office repositioning, adaptive reuse or combinations of these approaches. The Yardi figures do not identify the project type behind each added square foot, so they cannot prove that conversions are driving the Midwest increase. They do, however, justify evaluating underused office and mixed-use properties alongside new sites.

In a conversion, the early feasibility review should map the existing structural grid, floor-to-floor height, electrical capacity, HVAC zoning, life-safety systems, restrooms, accessibility routes and telecommunications pathways. A building that looks large enough on a leasing plan may lose substantial usable area to new egress, rated corridors, shafts or acoustic separation.

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Flexible infrastructure has to support different memberships

Coworking occupancy changes by hour and by member type. Private offices, shared desks, conference rooms, phone rooms, training areas and event zones place different loads on power, ventilation, lighting and acoustics. Construction documents should show how these areas can be reconfigured without relocating major services.

• Power and data: provide distributed capacity for desk changes, dedicated circuits for meeting and production equipment, and accessible pathways for future cabling.
• HVAC: zone areas with different occupancy patterns so a lightly used private-office wing does not have to operate like a full event space.
• Acoustics: separate quiet work, calls and group activity with a combination of room geometry, sound-absorbing finishes and properly detailed partitions.
• Life safety and accessibility: verify occupant loads, exit capacity, travel distances, accessible routes and toilet counts under the adopted local codes before committing to a test fit.
• Security: coordinate access control for building entry, member areas, private suites and after-hours rooms without creating conflicts with egress hardware.

Average size is not the same as a leaseable target

The reported average includes the full measured location, not necessarily the area available for desks. Reception, circulation, meeting rooms, kitchens, storage, mechanical rooms and shared amenities all consume space. A pro forma should therefore distinguish gross area, rentable area and usable member area instead of applying 19,313 square feet directly to a desk count.

A practical preconstruction checklist

Teams considering a Midwest coworking project can turn the market signal into a disciplined go/no-go process:

1. Define the geography and date. Label the analysis as a February 2025 snapshot and supplement it with current local leasing, permitting and building data before approving a 2026 project.
2. Test both a conversion and a new-build scenario. Compare acquisition, demolition, code upgrades, utility work, schedule risk and eventual flexibility rather than assuming one delivery method is cheaper.
3. Build two or three layouts. Show a private-office-heavy plan, a shared-desk plan and a meeting/event-heavy plan. Identify which walls, doors, ducts and electrical runs can move between scenarios.
4. Verify code assumptions with the authority having jurisdiction. Confirm occupancy classification, occupant load, exiting, accessibility, fire protection, signage and any change-of-use requirements before pricing finishes.
5. Price infrastructure separately from finishes. A low initial finish allowance can conceal expensive electrical, HVAC, sprinkler, acoustic and low-voltage work.
6. Plan phasing. If the building will remain partly occupied, sequence demolition, temporary protection, shutdowns, inspections and commissioning so existing tenants can operate safely.
7. Set performance criteria. Document temperature ranges, ventilation expectations, lighting levels, acoustic goals, network capacity and room-change allowances before subcontractor bids.
8. Stress-test utilization. Model ordinary desk use, peak meeting demand and occasional events. The highest occupancy case may control egress, restroom, cooling and parking requirements.

How to read the national numbers without overclaiming

The U.S. inventory reached 7,814 locations and 140.1 million square feet by February 2025. The area total was 15.2% higher than the 121.6 million square feet recorded one year earlier, while the location count rose 25%. Because locations grew faster than area nationally, the average site declined; that is consistent with more smaller locations entering the mix, but the aggregate data cannot identify the reason for every change.

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The Midwest differed on the size measure: its average location increased by 70 square feet. That does not establish that every Midwestern city, building type or operator is pursuing larger facilities. The regional aggregate combines markets with different rents, vacancies, transit patterns, code requirements and construction costs.

What changed by September 2025—and what did not

A later Yardi Matrix sample covering September 2025 reported 8,420 U.S. coworking spaces, 152.2 million square feet and a 2.1% share of national office space. It also reported that Chicago had the largest increase in market share among the 25 largest markets, rising 60 basis points to 2.6%.

Those figures show that the national market continued to change after the February snapshot. They do not provide a new, directly comparable Midwest-wide growth rate, so they cannot support a claim that the Midwest remained the fastest-growing region through September. Use the February regional figures for the Midwest comparison and treat the September data as a later national update.

What the data cannot tell a builder

The accessible March 2025 report provides regional aggregates rather than a full metro-by-metro explanation. It does not establish which cities, suburbs, building classes or project types caused the Midwest increase. Nor does it prove why operators opened particular locations. Factors such as rents, employer policies, transit, housing patterns, renovations and local incentives may matter, but attributing the regional result to any one of them would go beyond the reported evidence.

The report also describes a possible continued move toward suburban, smaller spaces as an expectation, not a measured future outcome. Treat that idea as a scenario to test in site selection—not as a guaranteed direction for every Midwest project.

Decision framework for a proposed project

Bottom line for Midwest construction decisions

Through February 2025, Midwest coworking was the fastest-growing U.S. region by the reported year-over-year rates: 27.7% more locations and 28.1% more square footage. The region still trailed the Southeast in total inventory, and its average location grew slightly while the national average contracted. For builders, that combination supports serious evaluation of flexible-office projects and conversions, but not a one-size-fits-all prototype or an assumption that every market will repeat the regional average. Date every feasibility model, verify current local conditions and design the infrastructure for changing mixes of desks, offices and shared rooms.

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