Office with a pew: Coworking veterans hail ‘untapped potential’ of unused space within churches

A coworking space and a church — united around the idea of building community — formed a unique partnership earlier this year in Kansas City’s northland, said Bob Martin.

The CO-OP at Shoal Creek — which Martin and Heather Heckroot opened in January — has taken up residence at Shoal Creek Community Church in Pleasant Valley.

Space in the building had been largely unused except on Sundays. 

The CO-OP at Shoal Creek, a coworking space at Shoal Creek Community Church in Pleasant Valley; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

“This church is not the exception,” Martin said of the trend, noting the duo also is in talks with a couple of other churches. “Eighty percent of all churches in the country are losing members — and giving is on the decline — and a lot of them had physical footprints not unlike this. And they’re sitting fallow six days a week.”

The CO-OP coworking space offers offices, conference rooms, event space, and a commissary kitchen. It already has outgrown its original six offices and now houses 14 businesses, including a car rental company, a private school, and a music/art studio, Martin said, noting the venture is a partnership with the church, so they share revenue.

“They’ve been great partners and part of it is because our values align in the sense of building community,” he continued. “We’re mission driven and our goal is to really help build business. We believe that the most successful way of doing that is through community and connections.”

Heather Heckroot and Bob Martin, The CO-OP; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

A chance encounter with the pastor at the church led to the partnership, Heckroot and Martin recalled. The CO-OP co-founders — who worked together at IWerx before Martin sold his equity in the company at the end of 2022 — were having coffee together last year when the pastor overheard their conversation about what they missed about IWerx and possibly finding a new office space.

“We really appreciated the connections that we made, primarily through some intentional networking,” Martin shared.

The CO-OP at Shoal Creek, a coworking space at Shoal Creek Community Church in Pleasant Valley; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

When the pastor was getting up to leave, they noted, he gave them his business card and told them he might be able to help. They didn’t think much of the opportunity until the card dropped out of Heckroot’s notebook a few months later. She was commuting from Liberty to a coworking space in Overland Park, so she was ready to explore other options and decided to meet with the pastor.

“We walk the whole building; it’s 55,000 square feet,” she recalled. “We go back into the conference room and we sit down. He says, ‘So can you do it?’ And I was like, ‘Can I do what?’ And he goes, ‘Can you build a community here?’ And I said, ‘Yes, because with all of this space, it’s just nothing but untapped potential. It’s just opportunity.’”

“The church stepped in and they did so many beautiful renovations for us to get everything up and running,” Martin added.