Downtown co-working business Alt Space is under new ownership and is looking to increase benefits in an effort to get more membership.

All Alt Space locations (Telluride, Ridgway, Grand Junction, Delta and Powderhorn, in addition to Montrose) were purchased by Brad Rowland and his company, Emergent, in February.

Located in Florence, Colorado (in Fremont County), Emergent owns Emergent Campus, a co-working, office and event space repurposed from the historic Florence High School building.

The former owners of Alt Space moved to Evergreen, Colorado and both secured other jobs, leading to their selling the company.

Brock Predovich, operations manager for Alt Space, was in Montrose this week working to improve procedures and plan events.

He said the Alt Space location was full (it has 30 available desks for rent) pre-pandemic. But since 2020, membership has dwindled at Alt Space locations.

“Basically, the intent behind buying these spaces is to not let these spaces go away,” Predovich said Tuesday. “If these spaces go away in each community, it affects these communities.”

He said over the last year, the previous owners didn’t have enough time to plan events and give time to each of the spaces.

First on Predovich’s list was launching a “Community Empowerment” program to incentivize people to become members and to recruit other members.

Normally, desk memberships are $350 per month. The recruitment program allows people to save on their membership with every new member they add.

Next, he has events planned to benefit members and entrepreneurs. In July, there will be a week of events, including a “pitch” contest, where people pitch their ideas or businesses and receive feedback.

Another is a program that teaches people how to implement artificial intelligence into their businesses.

There are other parts of the business that are working, however, Predovich said.

The previous owners implemented an automated approach, which Emergent plans to keep.

“Doing an automated approach allows you to bring co-working spaces to smaller communities,” he said. “A space like this doesn’t typically make a lot of sense financially, especially if you’re hiring a person to sit here eight or 12 hours a day.”

Predovich plans to implement AI into the business more, to allow for more automation. But he also thinks there’s something to having someone on site to shake hands with.

“When you (go fully automated), you don’t have that kind of key figure in each community making sure to connect to people, so the new members don’t get that.”

He said old members stayed, but they couldn’t add new members at an efficient enough rate and lost people to home offices.

The incentive program aims at connecting members with members, benefiting the business and the members.

Those events coming in July are part of a program called “Montrose Ignite,” which is in collaboration with The Camper’s Hub, a campsite and co-working venue for digital nomads.

Montrose Ignite will include $5,000 in cash and prizes.

To learn more about member benefits, or to see a list of events, those interested can visit altspacecowork.com.

Justin Tubbs is the Montrose Business Times editor. He can be reached by email at justin@montrosebusinesstimes.com or by phone at 970-765-0915 or mobile at 254-246-2260.