The Green Garage turns 15 this year! We’re not ready to bust out the champagne quite yet (that’ll come this fall, when we get closer to the actual anniversary date). But the approaching milestone has us reflecting on how much has changed since we opened our sustainable Detroit coworking space all the way back in 2011.
Back then, we were the first bona fide coworking space in Detroit, and the clear choice for socially and environmentally minded startups looking for a shared workspace to join.
These days, there are numerous options for small business owners, nonprofit leaders, freelancers, and remote workers who are looking for workspace that’s free from the distractions of home, but more accessible than a traditional office.
Having choices means that if you’re looking for a Detroit coworking space in 2026, you’ll be able to select one based on a variety of factors, including location, values, and overall vibe. People who gravitate toward the Green Garage do so for a variety of reasons, but it often has to do with our central location in Midtown’s Cass Corridor neighborhood, our inspiring historic facility, and our sustainable, community-based approach.
15 years after we first opened our doors, coworking is on the rise, both locally and nationally. And with the boom in remote work since the pandemic, having a dedicated place to work is more important than ever in helping professionals overcome the isolation that can come from working from home day in and day out.
For the benefit of mobile professionals who are new to coworking or just checking out their local options, we thought we would take a look at three key principles of coworking, Green Garage style: flexibility, community, and sustainability.
Flexibility
One of the many benefits of coworking is the flexibility it offers companies large and small. Flexibility has always been baked into our five membership options: shared table seats, dedicated desks, 2-person offices, 3+ person offices, and private studios.
We work closely with each incoming business-in-residence (as we call our members) to figure out which option is best for them given their unique situation and needs. If you’re a remote marketer looking to upgrade from local coffee shops, a shared table seat will probably fit just right. A sole proprietor of a design firm, on the other hand, would benefit from leasing a dedicated desk, where you can install your multiple monitor set-up, bring your favorite rolling chair, and settle in for long sessions.
Small teams thrive in our multi-person offices, which seat between two and eight people and are designed with collaboration in mind. (We’re happy to reconfigure them, space permitting, based on incoming businesses’ needs.) And for companies who make and sell products or have special storage requirements, our private, closed-door studios provide a versatile yet rock-solid home base for a wide range of activities.
Beyond our different space options, we understand that our businesses experience fluctuations in staffing, so we’re happy to work with them to accommodate changes, including seasonal adjustments for short-term workers like interns.
We also offer flexibility in terms of the length of our lease agreements. Our default lease term is one year, well shorter than the length of an average commercial lease. But we understand that even a year-long commitment might not make sense in every situation, so we also offer shorter-term contracts on a case-by-case basis.
Community
One of the biggest benefits that coworking spaces offer their members is easy access to other professionals. There’s nothing like having a built-in network of like minded people to bounce ideas off of, get inspired by, learn from, and build friendships with.
From our earliest days, we at the Green Garage have defined ourselves by our commitment to cultivating a diverse and connected community. This community spirit touches everything from the physical layout of our space, which is designed to reduce isolation by promoting connectedness among our members, to our longstanding traditions of getting folks together to build and strengthen both personal and professional relationships.
These opportunities include our twice-a-month community lunches (which the public is always welcome and encouraged to attend) as well as regular gatherings for our members like happy hours, field trips, and learning opportunities. Since we opened Seasons Market & Cafe down the street in 2022, those opportunities have grown to include neighborhood family fun days and afternoon yoga practices, too.
Over the years, our community mindedness has resulted not only in our members forging strong, supportive relationships, but also in the notably long periods of time that businesses remain in residence with us. It is not at all uncommon for businesses to cowork with us for six, eight, even ten or twelve years!
Mahala Clayton of Patronicity, which has been based at Green Garage since 2012, summed it up recently when she described the Green Garage as “a home away from home.”
“As businesses in residence,” she said, “we are able to have a real support network and get personal guidance and recommendations for nearly anything and everything we need to support us and our work.”
With our building being located in the dense and walkable Cass Corridor neighborhood of Midtown Detroit, we like to say that the Green Garage is a “community within a community.” With its abundance of small, locally owned businesses within just a few blocks, the Cass Corridor offers numerous opportunities to step out and make those neighborhood connections that make everyday life in the heart of the city so special.
Sustainability
Broadly speaking, sustainability is about managing resources to promote wellbeing and longevity. The argument could be made that coworking is, by its nature, more sustainable than traditional commercial leasing, since it generally costs less, allowing businesses to devote more of their resources to their operations, rather than facility maintenance.
Here at the Green Garage, we take sustainability to another level. We were founded not just as a coworking space, but a demonstration center for sustainability practices in business and the built environment.
Our holistic approach to resource management includes everything from solar energy to high-performance windows, and from on-site bike storage and composting to Michigan native plant gardens. In 2025, our energy conservation efforts earned us a 100 score from ENERGY STAR, their highest rating.
Our leadership in this area has drawn many individuals and businesses to our Detroit coworking space from sustainability-related fields, including green building certification, solar energy, environmental journalism, and water quality engineering (to name a few). But we take a big tent approach, so you don’t have to be a “green business” to join us. We just ask that you get involved and participate in the systems we’ve set up to keep our footprint well below the average commercial building’s.
Finally, a key aspect of our sustainable approach to business operations is continuous improvement, which means we’re always optimizing and fine-tuning our services to create more value for our businesses-in-residence.
In recent years, improvements we’ve made include upgrading our five meeting rooms to support better videoconferencing and in-person collaboration, as well as opening our Lucky Duck Mini-Mart, an in-house satellite market that gives our members convenient access to their favorite pick-up-and-go snacks and lunch options from Seasons.
In 2025, we also launched a new Virtual Office service, which provides a business mailing address to a growing network of clients who are benefiting from our recent certification as a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency with the US Postal Service. This is a different from but related to our coworking options, with Virtual Office clients being able to purchase as-needed access to coworking space, and with some businesses-in-residence taking advantage of our new enhanced mail management services, like mail scanning and forwarding.
Learn More and Get In Touch
As we look back at the first 15 years of our Detroit coworking space, we’re feeling deeply grateful for the more than 200 businesses-in-residence who have called us their home since 2011. We’re also feeling optimistic about the future of coworking in Detroit and looking forward to bringing new individuals and teams into our diverse and welcoming professional community.
If you’re considering joining us, visit the Coworking page to explore membership details and use the contact form to start a conversation. You may also want to browse this list of businesses-in-residence so you can see who’s currently based here.
Last but not least, we encourage you to attend one of our community lunches on either the first or third Friday of the month from 12:00 to 1:00. They include networking and learning opportunities and are always followed by a tour of our building, providing the best opportunity to meet others here and get a feel for the place.