Insights from GCUC UK’s “Big Flex vs. True Grit” panel with Lisa Cations (JCR Advisors), Shannon Burke (managed.), Tom Almas (Wizu Workspace), Rebekah Lloyd-Beere (MediaCity), and Gareth I. Jones (TownSq)
Picture this: you’ve spent years building your coworking brand, perfecting your community vibe, and creating something genuinely special. Then suddenly, the landlord down the street decides they want a piece of the action—and they’ve got about 100 times your budget to make it happen.
Welcome to the new reality of coworking, where independent operators are facing their biggest challenge yet: competing with institutional landlords who’ve decided flexibility is the future.
At GCUC UK, this exact scenario played out in what might have been the most brutally honest panel discussion of the day. No punches were pulled, no corporate speak was tolerated, and the result was a fascinating look at how the coworking landscape is rapidly evolving.
Lisa Cations (JCR Advisors)
The Great Flex Gold Rush
Lisa Cations from JCR Advisors set the stage perfectly, describing her role as “advising the Goliaths and the dark side on how to bring the good operators into their castles.” The metaphor was apt—this really is a battle for territory.
Shannon Burke from managed., who has a unique view across the entire marketplace, confirmed what many operators have been feeling: “The bigger landlords—the GPEs and the like—are coming into the market offering flexible spaces that are really becoming rivals to traditional serviced office providers.”
But here’s the kicker: it’s not just the big institutional players. Smaller landlords are also jumping in, often partnering with service providers to bolt on flexibility to their offerings. The result? A market that’s more crowded, more competitive, and frankly, more confusing than ever.
The Landlord’s Confession
Rebekah Lloyd-Beere from Landsec’s MediaCity provided perhaps the most refreshing perspective of the day. Instead of corporate platitudes, she offered genuine insight into why landlords are diving headfirst into flex.
“When I joined MediaCity, I was on reception, and I thought my tenants were the most important people,” she said. The flex journey started not from a boardroom strategy session, but from recognising that SMEs were “the heartbeat” of their campus.
What began as a 24,000 square foot experiment has exploded to 100,000 square feet over five years. The drivers? Higher rents, better retention rates, and—crucially—genuine community building. But here’s what made Rebekah’s approach different: they actually listened to their tenants.
“We pulled together a focus group with all our occupiers. We asked them: what have you done well in buildings? What do you think we could do better?” The result was the content studio floor they were sitting in—podcast studios, dark rooms, fitness spaces—all priced affordably because tenants had been leaving site to find these services elsewhere.
Tom Almas (Wizu Workspace)
The Indie Operator’s Reality Check
Tom Almas from Wizu didn’t mince words about what independent operators are facing: “The biggest threat and competition to flex is actually coming from traditional prop cos and conventional landlords who are panicking about what to do next with their portfolios.”
His assessment was stark: “The market is really tough for us right now. Major impact on our cost base, major impact in terms of competition and downward pressure on desk rates. Desk rates have actually gone down.”
When you layer institutional competition on top of rising costs, the math gets brutal fast. As Tom put it: “When you’ve got larger institutional landlords coming in with very deep pockets, as an independent operator, it’s a cause of massive concern.”
Gareth I. Jones (TownSq)
The “Boomerang Member” Phenomenon
Gareth Jones from TownSq introduced a fascinating concept: the boomerang member. These are clients who leave for cheaper alternatives but eventually return when they realize what they’re missing.
“You’ve got to be willing to let them go with a handshake and a smile, knowing that when they realize what’s missing, they’ll come back—but you’ve still got to be there for them to come back to,” he explained.
His point about regional disrespect hit hard: “People underestimate how hard it is to do [coworking] in the regions. It feels quite disrespectful because it’s just seeing it as a population count… and you miss the point of what really is going on there.”
The Managed Space Middle Ground
Tom dropped a bombshell insight about the market evolution: “The genius of the managed model is that it presents flex space with a conventional wrapper, which large businesses understand.”
He described seeing lease terms that were “three years with a 12-month rolling break” and thinking, “This is just flex presented in a format that people used to occupying real estate conventionally understand.”
The result? Larger businesses (1,500+ square feet) are gravitating toward managed space because they want identity, don’t share well, and prefer conventional lease structures—even if they’re paying similar rates.
The Speed Advantage
In the face of deeper pockets and shinier spaces, what can independent operators compete on? Tom’s answer was unequivocal: speed.
“Flex is speed. We can move 50 people into space in four days. Conventional landlords can’t do that because they need heads of terms, agents, lease drawings. It’s like watching paint dry.”
His challenge to independent operators was direct: “We’ve got to focus on that speed point, on service, on simplicity. We are specialists at what we do, and we have to communicate that to punters in this really confused buying process.”
Shannon Burke (managed.)
The Innovation Advantage
Shannon from managed. offered a crucial insight about why indies shouldn’t despair: “The small guys are the best at innovating. Big companies have too much red tape. They can’t move quickly internally.”
Her point was that when consumer trends emerge, independent operators can pivot and respond much faster than institutional players. The challenge is leveraging that agility effectively.
The Niche Strategy
Tom revealed Wizu’s bold solution: they launched a budget brand. “We saw a gap in that budget end of the market. We thought, we can’t compete at the premium end—we haven’t got the cash. But we can do budget differently.”
The result? Flexico, targeting secondary and tertiary locations with a price-led product for businesses that “don’t care much about community” but want functional space. The psychology was tough for Tom initially, but pragmatism won: “If it makes money, I don’t give a shit really.”
The Retention Reality
All the competition talk aside, Tom identified the real challenge: “Retention has been a massive issue. It’s the first time in 10 years we’ve really had to knuckle down on just how the hell people are going.”
The problem isn’t just losing members to other operators—they’re losing them to different types of space entirely. “They’re not just going to other operators, they are going to different types of space.”
The Community vs. Commercial Balance
The panel wrestled with a fundamental tension: while everyone talks about community and relationships, commercial realities often drive decisions. As Shannon noted: “There are organizations where it’s the CFO that’s the decision maker, and he doesn’t give a shit about [the community aspects]. He cares about what it looks like on his balance sheet.”
Yet Rebekah had examples of relationships saving deals: “We had a bigger occupier who was leaving, and it was because of my relationship with the CFO that… they stayed.”
The Bottom Line: Adapt or Die
The message from this panel was clear: the coworking market is evolving rapidly, and survival requires adaptation. Independent operators can’t compete on capital expenditure or balance sheet strength, but they can compete on speed, innovation, service, and genuine community building.
The key is being honest about what you can and can’t do, finding your niche, and executing relentlessly within it. As Gareth put it: “If you enjoy that part of it, and you can grow something sustainable that serves that purpose, you learn so much every day that creates new openings and new landscapes.”
The David vs. Goliath story isn’t over—it’s just getting more interesting. The question isn’t whether independent operators can survive alongside institutional landlords. It’s whether they can thrive by doing what they do best: being fast, innovative, and genuinely connected to their communities.
The slingshot might look different these days, but it can still find its mark.
Want to dive deeper into the future of flexible workspace? Connect with operators and industry experts at our upcoming GCUC UK London, where the most honest conversations happen between the official sessions.