Reybold opens new PLY cowork space in Newark
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PLY Coworking Spaces will bring the shared office model to the Newark area. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
NEWARK – What was once a historic farmhouse along Ogletown Road outside of downtown Newark is now the state’s newest cowork space.
Glasgow-based Reybold Group restored the historic Morrow farmhouse, which it moved less than a mile to build the Car Max site to the east, and repurposed it as PLY Coworking Spaces.
PLY is the first major cowork space for the Glasgow-based Reybold. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
The opening of PLY at 1130 Ogletown Road marks a new diversity for Reybold, which is principally known as a homebuilder in the Newark and Wilmington areas. It does hold some industrial and office assets throughout New Castle County, and leased five small offices at a self-storage site in Bear, but PLY is its biggest foray into cowork to date.
Jennifer Corbett, commercial leasing operations manager for Reybold, told Delaware Business Times that the firm began looking at opportunities for cowork spaces after seeing the trend in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
Suites at PLY range from single efficiency suites to multi-room suites. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
“During COVID, a lot of people moved home but were tired of working out of their kitchens. Meanwhile, a lot of the bigger office spaces are starting to shut down, but people still need that office space,” she said.
PLY has 12 suites ranging from a single, efficiency suite at $500 a month to a multi-room suite renting at $2,800 a month, Corbett said. It offers fully furnished suites with Wi-Fi internet, printer-copier functions, and coffee in a modern setting with historic flourishes, such as the original wood floors. PLY, which retains the original farmhouse’s architecture, has already attracted clients like a therapist, graphic designer and business manager.
Reybold Executive Manager Jerry Heisler Jr. said Delaware has seen some successful cowork spaces open in recent years, which gave them confidence in PLY. With The Mill and Regus serving the Wilmington region, PLY will be the closest cowork space to downtown Newark, the state’s third largest city and home to the University of Delaware.
“There’s always been a need for cowork space and it’s been developing as we’ve seen different modules or models of it over the last couple of years. So, we just want to continue on that path and keep innovating,” Heisler told DBT.
The former Avon plant on Ogletown Road may be Reybold’s next cowork project, according to its leader. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
The development firm likes the cowork model so much that it plans to develop at least part of the former Avon property further to the east to cowork spaces, Heisler said.
That 42-acre property has sat vacant for more than a decade after the cosmetics company shuttered a distribution facility there after generations in Newark. At its peak, Avon employed about 700 people on the eastern outskirts of Newark. Reybold acquired the property in 2016 for more than $7.9 million, according to county land records.
