Drums, travelling, and noir room. Another co-working space opens in Kyiv on Arsenalna

Author

Lesia Solovchuk

In Kyiv, next to the Arsenalna metro station, a new location Arsenal 2 of the coworking network Creative States has appeared. The space design is made in the theme of travelling, adventure, and nature.

The coworking space is situated in an office location that is part of the renovation project A-Station, opened in October 2021 in Creative States—one can get there from the inner area Mardi Gras.

The total area of the location is more than 2,500 sq. m, it is intended for 500 residents. The Creative State design of Arsenal 2 is devoted to travelling and exploration, with many views and "green" solutions in the form of vertical gardening.

The style of the predecessor facility, the first building of the Creative State of Arsenal, has also been retained: there are both art nouveau and New Orleans, as well as a lot of jazz in the interior. One can see a real saxophone and a wall with drums in the meeting room—this conveys the atmosphere of the festive parades.

The coworking space has meeting rooms, video conferencing rooms, a lounge area, a large kitchen, and a separate children's area.

The location is fully provided with the office infrastructure:

32 fixed offices,
hot desk areas,
8 meeting rooms,
12 skype rooms,
6 business suites,
executive suites for teams.

The second Arsenal provides the residents with the access to a special noir room for relaxation with ambient music. The room is completely soundproof from extraneous noise.

There are also common areas: an enlarged kitchen, sanitary units with showers, a children's room, a bar with a lounge, and a two-level parking.

As Ilia Kenigshtein, CEO at the business space network Creative States, commented to , the experiment with new formats of the office spaces without the traditional perception of the workplace is ongoing. It’s just working furniture and stable wi-fi have not met the needs of business for efficient work in a while.

"We are moving towards the office spaces as separate worlds with their own kitchenettes, lounge areas and other creative components that balance work with lifestyle and rest," he explained.

Big Money Club, the Kyiv office of the Israeli "unicorn" Bringg, the fintech company RBI Retail Innovation (part of the international banking group Raiffeisen Bank International), the office of the Swedish IT company Agena Tech and others became residents of Creative State of Arsenal 2.

Expansion in capital and into the regions

In addition to Creative State of Arsenal 2, the company announced new facilities for 2022. A new location in Kyiv business center Capital Towers is among them. The area of the space is over 5,500 sq. m. The trump card of this project will be a terrace with a living garden.

The second Creative States project will appear in the renovation facility on Podil.

By the end of spring 2022, Creative States plans to open a second space for Dnipro residents with an area of 3,600-4,000 sq.m., which can accommodate about 700 people. This will be the second object in Dnipro. The first one opened in the summer of 2020, and it was the first location outside of Kyiv—Creative State of Dnipro. In 2022, the same location will expand by a separate event hall with an area of 1,500 sq. m. The total area of the coworking space will reach 5,000 sq.m.

The expansion to the regions will continue in Kharkiv. At the beginning of autumn 2022, two facilities will open at once in the city center, with an area of about 4,000 sq.m. each. The total investment for delivering both spaces is over $4 million.

Creative States consider Odesa to be the next million-plus city to launch office space.

"We continue to scale Creative States in Ukraine. 5 locations, over 15,000 sq. m., and 2,500 residents. We are ready to "double up", because we see from the residents’ feedback that the format of flexible offices, service support, and access to the community remains the most popular. When opening new locations, we enter either A-class business centers or renovation projects: in both cases we rely not on meters, but on service, standards, and innovations—in the product itself, and in customer support," Ilia Kenigshtein said.

Reference. Creative States launched the first location in Kyiv in the spring of 2019, when in March Ilia Kenigshtein presented a co-working space at the business center Senator, and at the end of June, the second location at the business center Gulliver was launched. In June 2020, in addition to Creative State of Arsenal, the first location outside Kyiv—in Dnipro—was launched.

In May 2021, Creative States presented a franchise targeted at both Ukrainian million-plus cities and the West. In the summer, as part of the capital's Arsenal, the company opened the inner area Mardi Gras.