When Bonnie and Brian Watson started plans to open a coworking space in Telluride in late-2020, the venture was just the first step in an attempt to bolster the Western Slope’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
After opening the space in Telluride in January, the Watsons’ plans became bigger and bolder.
“When Bonnie and I opened the space in Telluride, we reached out to (Proximity) and said, ‘well, why don’t we just purchase the rest of the spaces?’”
In May, the Watsons purchased the space previously home to Proximity, a coworking space in Montrose founded in 2017, on May 1.
Since their purchase of the Montrose location, they’ve added three more former Proximity spaces — one in Ridgway and two in Grand Junction (Colorado Mesa University’s Innovation Center and another space downtown).
The Watsons’ mission? Have Alt Space Coworking, which they started in Telluride and rebranded the Proximity spaces to, serve as the largest brand of coworking spaces on the Western Slope.
“Bonnie and I really have a vision for the region and want to support entrepreneurs throughout the Western Slope,” Brian said. “We’ve been rebranding it and tying all the locations together.
“Alt Space exists to connect entrepreneurs, small businesses and remote workers to the tools, resources and people that they need in order to be successful. One thing that we’ve seen, especially during COVID, is that it’s really accelerated the ability for people to work in a distributed manner, so we’ve seen a lot of people relocating over to the Western Slope.”
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