Creatives, freelancers, and entrepreneurs in Queens can take advantage of a new coworking space in Forest Hills that also offers technology classes. NY1's Van Tieu filed the following report.
It was a leap of faith. Veronica Nizama of Forest Hills left her job a few months ago to embark on an entrepreneurial project with her husband and friends. They’re building an action adventure video game. Initially, they worked from home, which was a difficult lifestyle balance.
"You get cabin fever,” Nizama explained. “It’s kind of hard to make that disconnect between life and work.”
Now, she’s able to separate her home life and work life. The group works together at The Austin Space. It's a coworking space on 72nd Avenue in Forest Hills that that opened earlier this month.
“This has just been like great for us for productivity for communicating. It’s been invaluable tool for us I don’t know where we would be right now if it wasn’t for this space, “ Nizama said.
Founder, Benny Tan, is giving one-on-one tours of the two-story shared space to prospective members. The Queens native works remotely as a software engineer and occasionally travels to Manhattan. He saw the need to bring the city's energy to queens and build a creative and collaborative space in the borough.
"A lot of people live in queens, and they just don’t want to make the commute into the city,” Tan said.
There are different levels of membership starting at $25 a month to use "hot seat" desks, the lounge, and conference room. Other levels give members the option to have a reserved desk space or to drop in multiple times a month.
Membership also includes amenities such as kitchenette space, office supplies, a printer, and internet.
In addition to sharing the coworking space, there will also be technology classes hosted in the space on weekends.
The Technology Academy offers a range of courses from programming to web design.
Learn more at theaustinspace.com.