Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer and Common CEO Brad Hargreaves with Jackson Park at 28-16 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City (Credit: General Assembly) Co-living might not just be for twentysomethings anymore. Common is teaming up with Tishman Speyer to launch Kin, a new service geared toward families that will include playrooms, larger units and on-demand child care, according to the Wall Street Journal. They will test out the service at Long Island City’s Jackson Park and plan to announce additional locations moving forward. The service is a way for Common to try holding onto its customers as they age out of their 20s, as some analysts have said that the co-living concept does not have much appeal to people once they get married or have children. Buildings that are part of Kin will not include shared kitchens and bathrooms, but they will be relatively small to help keep the prices down and include larger common spaces to make up for this. Although millennials are beginning to leave the cities for the suburbs in greater numbers, they are still more willing to rent in the city for longer while their children are small. Tishman Speyer president Rob Speyer told the Journal it was hard to find good living spaces to raise a family in the city even though that is something more people are looking to do. “People are choosing to raise families in big cities more than ever,” he said. “It’s very difficult to find housing that’s tailored to that.” [WSJ] — Eddie Small
US co-living company Common has partnered with real estate firm Eddie Small to launch Kin, a service that aims to challenge the notion that co-living doesn't appeal to families. Kin buildings swap shared kitchens and bathrooms for playrooms, larger units and on-demand child care, and is targeted at Common's millennial customers, who it says are moving on to the next stage of their lives. A pilot location will test the concept at Long Island City’s Jackson Park, with other sites set to follow.