The Commons is offering a new workplace for professionals in Excelsior

Sisters Peggy Stefan and Tammy Magney have a goal to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

The sisters co-own The Commons, a coworking space in Excelsior that has a second location in Hopkins. Folks from all types of industries and businesses — entrepreneurs, contractors, remote-workers — rent space at 540 Lake St. from the sisters who work to make the space a nice office environment.

“We’re here to help you grow your business,” Stefan told Lakeshore Weekly News. “We have a lot of people who’ve been through our system. Maybe they started out by themselves and built themselves up to a size where they are now in an office.”

Stefan said several companies have started out at The Commons and moved on to their own spaces.

The Commons is one of many coworking spaces in the Twin Cities as remote working grows in the United States. According to the 2017 United States Census, 8 million people worked from home in 2017, this was 5.2% of workers, which grew from 5% in 2016.

According to Stefan, a lot of people like the opportunity of working remotely or working from home, but when given the opportunity feel lonely or distracted. This has led to the rise of coworking spaces.

The Commons opened in October 2012 when Stefan and Magney were looking for space to rent for their own businesses. Magney is an architect and at the time Stefan was an executive coach. The two both lived in Excelsior and didn’t find any coworking spaces outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and neither wanted to drive downtown every day.

Read more here