At 4:45 PM last Friday, CoCo members, including myself, received an e-mail bearing a subject line of three sad words: CoCo Fargo Closing.

“This was a difficult decision that we made very reluctantly,” writes Kyle Coolbroth, CoCo co-founder and CEO. “Despite community support and enthusiasm…we were simply unable to build up a sustainable membership base.”

CoCo Fargo will officially close this Friday, on June 5.

CoCo, a collaborative coworking space that started in Minneapolis in 2010, came to Fargo nearly ten months ago with much fanfare and excitement. They worked with us here at Emerging Prairie as well as the GFMEDC to create a central space where individuals without a set office could collaborate and host events.

Coworking spaces have become very popular nationwide for freelancers, remote workers, entrepreneurs, and the like. In fact, CoCo’s three other spaces in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Uptown have been very successful – garnering hundreds of members whereas CoCo Fargo had less than 50.

So why not Fargo? Laurie Healy, Coco’s director of marketing and communications, says they can’t be sure, but had a few speculations.

Fargo vs. MSP

It could be the fact that the Twin Cities have 3.8 million people, while Fargo-Moorhead totals around 220,000.

“We have heard reports from coworking operators that it is difficult to make coworking take root in smaller communities,” she said.

CoCo Fargo also received some criticism about the pricing model. With a starting point of $70 for one-day-a-week membership and $350 every six months for 24/7 access, working at CoCo is not exactly cheap. Many locals said that although they would like to work at Coco, it simply was not affordable. Others critiqued the company for not adjusting their pricing model to fit Fargo, where income is lower than in the Twin Cities.

Healy, however, said the differences weren’t great enough to warrant an adjustment. She cited Sperling’s, which states that at $52,952 average salary in Minneapolis and $48,000 average salary in Fargo, there is only a 10% difference. Office leases, Healy said, were also comparable.

“We didn’t see a big enough difference in the wages and the cost of living to dissuade us from bringing our pricing model to Fargo,” she said, adding that, “our goal is not to gain members at any price. Cutting prices would have devalued the membership that our members pay for in other locations and ultimately wouldn’t be sustainable.”

Whatever the reason, CoCo was unable to build the membership they needed, and according to Healy, they are “convinced that we exhausted every avenue to drive membership.”

CoCo is planning to keep expanding, she said, but to cities with a market comparable to Minneapolis.

What’s next?

Now, the space at 122½ Broadway above the King House Buffet will no longer be CoCo. But will it be something else?

According to reports in the Forum, Jim Gartin and the EDC are working with other groups to launch a new coworking space that could be open as early as July 1. And it’s no secret that Emerging Prairie is also heavily involved with the space.

(Although I’m not directly involved in these plans, I can tell you that I’ve certainly heard the word “coworking” around the office quite a bit these past few days.)

I mean, we certainly don’t want that beautiful, refurbished space that was once a century old bank to go to waste!

Stay tuned…

Update: Emerging Prairie and the GFMEDC are exploring how to continue a coworking space in Fargo. Right now, we need your help. Read more!

Photos courtesy of CoCo Fargo and Marisa Jackels.