Cowork Space Opens At Church Equity, Justice Center In St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The Allendale Equity & Justice Center’s new coworking space opened earlier this month at Allendale United Methodist Church.

Workers can rent a fixed desk for $300 a month or a shared hot desk for $125 a month of $75 a week. This includes access to a locker, high-speed wifi, shared meeting zones and printer access.

The center, which offers office space to “partners doing justice work in the community,” opened in the space that previously housed the church’s preschool, Pastor Andy Oliver told Patch.

The preschool, which operated for more than 50 years, closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Instead of trying to restart the preschool, we decided, instead, to work even deeper in the community with groups doing justice work,” Oliver said.

The more than 50 tenants — whether they use the space daily or only occasionally for meetings and events — include Girls Rock St. Pete, the Refugee and Migrant Women’s Initiative, Dream Defenders, the League of Women Voters, and transgender advocacy groups.

The center was inspired by the election of former President Donald Trump in 2016, the pastor said.

“The day after the election, I stood outside the church with a sign that said, ‘We choose love,’” he said.

Many who saw him made their own signs and joined him on the street throughout the day.

The church’s intern, Michael Anderson, excited by the response to Oliver’s sign, said he hoped to stand outside with one every day. But the pastor told him that there be a better use of his time.

“I told him to connect with groups in Tampa Bay that are doing important work,” Oliver said.
For months, Anderson met with various organizations, culminating with a spaghetti dinner to host all of them. At this dinner, the church offered each group Kahwa Coffee gift cards.

“I felt that was woefully inadequate,” the pastor said.

Realizing community organizations had trouble finding meeting space, Oliver and the church opened the former preschool space to them for free, which evolved formally into the Equity & Justice Center.

Now, the coworking space, open to the public, is the latest piece of the center. The project was funded by a $50,000 grant from the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership St. Pete program.

“So many people need to have space to work and working from home is good for some people, but some want to work in community and collaborate,” Oliver said.

Though the co-work spaces have set fees, they’re also available on a sliding scale.

“In the spirit of equity, we want to work with people to make sure financially they can afford it,” he said. “It’s a safe space and a space where people can collaborate so they’re not working in silos. We want to fill the space up and get it used. It really helps us build community.”