Behind the Buildout: Expanding Workbar Needham (Again), Vol. 1

I had lunch with a member of our Operating Committee in early fall 2025. We were talking about the health of the business, and I casually mentioned that I had just come from Workbar Needham, where I’d been sitting in the lobby because I didn’t want to take a seat from a member.

He literally dropped his fork.

“Is it normally that busy?” he asked.

It was. We had already expanded the location by 10,000 square feet in November 2024. Less than a year later, the space was so busy that I had to consciously try not to displace a member just to sit down.

He paused. “Is there room to expand again?”

I said, “I think the space next to us might be vacant… but that would put the location close to 40,000 square feet.”

He looked at me and said, “And?”

The next day, I called our landlord and started the negotiation.

What a far cry this was from when we opened our Needham location in May of 2020, the same week Covid lockdowns started. And yet, even then, we hit the benchmarks of our pro forma. From day one, the space buzzed. And it never really stopped.

Why Expansion Makes Sense

The thing about me is this: I need to love a location to pour my heart and soul into opening or expanding a Workbar. I don’t care about the PR or simply having the most locations. I care about members—and I care deeply that every Workbar is a successful representation of what we’ve been building for more than 15 years.

In Needham, the signs were undeniable:

• We had sustained demand from existing members who wanted to grow in place
• Companies were asking for team spaces that wouldn’t require sending employees into Boston
• Our coworking neighborhoods were full…every single day

The trends don’t lie. People want to get out of the house to get work done, but they don’t want the punishing commute. Companies want spaces that foster collaboration, but they don’t want long-term, high-cost leases. 

One of our members, CustomGPT, summed it up perfectly: the space doesn’t just house work, it accelerates it.

So here we are, adding another 12,000 square feet, bringing the location to just under 40,000 square feet. Not to make it bigger for the sake of being bigger, but to make it better for our members.

What Members Can Expect

Every expansion is approached intentionally, with the needs of Workbar members in mind. We don’t just want to offer more desks; we want to offer more choice. We’re all about flexibility and creating workspaces that work for everyone, not just one-size-fits-all solutions. 

Here’s what members can expect from the newest Needham expansion:

• More offices of all sizes for hybrid teams and project groups
• Expanded activity-based neighborhoods (Café, Commons, Study, Switchboard)
• A state-of-the-art conferencing center
• Upgraded amenities that support productive workdays

Everything is designed around how people actually work today, not outdated notions of what an office space should look like. 

Looking Ahead

The expansion is slated to open in May 2026, with pre-leasing already underway. But more importantly, Needham has become proof of something we’ve believed for a long time:

• People want great places to work close to home
• Companies want to give their teams more choice
• The future of work in Massachusetts is distributed, intentional, and human

I still remember finalizing the original lease in 2019, sitting in a Starbucks in Newton at 9pm on a holiday, just me and the president of The Bulfinch Companies. That story has become a bit of real estate lore, and I’m incredibly grateful it turned into a partnership we’ve continued to build on.

We recently held our construction kickoff meeting, and it felt like a reunion. Building a long-term business is hard work. Doing it alongside great people is truly motivating.

“Making work work” is more than a fun slogan for Wokbar. It’s a guiding principle for everything we do.

Stay tuned for Volume 2, which will go deeper into the design decisions we’re making this time around and what we’ve learned from watching this community grow over the last five years.