A photo of the interior of REEDS403 Cowork Lounge in Easton. (courtesy photo)

Mark Calafatello and Maryanne Russell had owned the building at 403 Northampton Street in Easton for five years, and they knew they wanted it to become something special. They were always reluctant to lease it out until they found just the right fit.

In the end, they decided not to lease it at all. Instead, they transformed it into the REEDS403 Cowork Lounge, a sanctuary for members to work, network, and relax in a beautiful and safe environment.

“We didn’t want this building to be anything other than spectacular, so the idea of someone coming in who wanted to open a T-shirt shop or something who had never been in retail before didn’t appeal to us,” Calafatello said. “We eventually decided the only people who are going to take it to the next level are us.”

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Monday, March 3, at the two-story building, which offers 3,000 square feet of co-working space across both floors. More than 120 members will be able to use the facility at any given time.

“The office paradigm is changing,” Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said. “The office space of the past is not brick and mortar as much as telecommuting. The REEDS403 Co-Work Lounge offers the commuting professional a home base to do their work.”

Rather than conventional desks and cubicles, REEDS403 offers a hot-desking organizational workspace system, with open space and conference rooms. The lower floor includes cocktail tables and countertops, club chairs and couches, and the second floor includes small individual tables for members to sit and spread out for their work.

A photo of the interior of REEDS403 Cowork Lounge in Easton. (courtesy photo)

“What we felt Easton needed was a nexus and a sanctuary for business and networking and coordinating,” Calafatello said.

REEDS403 joins a number of co-working spaces available in Lehigh Valley as part of the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Others include CoWork 414 in West Bethlehem, Easton coWorks in Easton, SoBeCoWorks in Bethlehem, Velocity in Allentown, Pi: Partnership for Innovation in South Bethlehem, and co-working space at the Bridgeworks Enterprise Center in Allentown.

“Co-working space is just one of the many resources available to startups in the Lehigh Valley, along with business incubators, technology grants, internship programs, and the region’s many excellent higher educational institutions,” said LVEDC President & CEO Don Cunningham.

“The fact that these co-working spaces are being established here shows that the Lehigh Valley is a place where these startups want to be, and they are fueling the companies that will drive the region’s future economy,” Cunningham said.

In preparing REEDS403, Calafatello and Russell visited co-working spaces in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia and looked at models both nationally and internationally to try to get a sense of the best trends and determine the perfect space to bring to Easton.

“When you’re in a space, it either feels good to be in it and you’re comfortable, or you’re not,” Calafatello said. “You can be in 30 offices, but there’s always one that sticks out and makes you say, ‘You know what, I want to be there.’ My belief is when you’re in this space, you’re going to have that experience.”