RALEIGH, N.C. – With more than 70 entrepreneurs already involved, HQ Raleigh may well be at full capacity in their new location.

According to co-founder Chris Gergen, the organization’s new facility in the Warehouse District of downtown Raleigh is close to full capacity.

Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane joined Gergen and co-founders Jason Widen and Jesse Lipson on Monday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony (the group’s fourth co-founder, Brooks Bell, could not attend the event).

More than 90 entrepreneurs and community members came to the event, said Liz Tracy, HQ Raleigh’s community manager. There are still plenty of openings for co-working memberships, and the potential of one or two more office suites, clarified Tracy, though the organization does expect to fill the space soon.

HQ Raleigh launched 18 months ago (originally as HUB Raleigh) and until last week, companies worked from co-working space on Hillsborough Street, adjacent to Brooks Bell Interactive (which will move into the office space vacated by HQ, according to sources).

“People are flocking to places and cities that support entrepreneurial endeavors,” announced Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane. “You are an incredible asset for the city.”

The founders plan to leverage their facility beyond the walls of entrepreneurship. To the crowd, Gergen stated that the facility would be used to convene creative leaders in education, policy, arts, fashion, and more.

“There’s a hunger, an appetite, for creativity in Raleigh,” said Gergen. “These are important parts of the ecosystem that we hope to cultivate.”

Bold predictions from HQ Raleigh co-founders

HQ Raleigh sits in the midst of the Warehouse District, a region of downtown that is slowly revitalizing.

“It’s a vibrant, creative neighborhood,” said Jesse Lipson, founder of ShareFile (which sold to Citrix) and co-founder of HQ Raleigh. Citrix’s ShareFile recently announced that they would move into the Warehouse District.

“These 70-plus startups are this city’s future,” said Lipson, speaking about the members and entrepreneurs of HQ Raleigh. “I really do believe that five years, we will see the next ShareFiles or Raleigh Denims – really successful companies – born here in HQ Raleigh.”

It’s a bold prediction, and all of the co-founders are on the same page. The group, which also launched ThinkHouse, an entrepreneurial residential program last fall, has big plans in store for their future.

“We want to create 50 ThinkHouses in the next decade,” said Gergen. 

The eight entrepreneurs living and working in the Raleigh ThinkHouse spend most of their work hours at HQ Raleigh, said Cameron Lilly, founder of Pop Up Training.

Gergen’s plans include other residential concepts around industries that are ripe for disruption – in Raleigh, Durham, across North Carolina, and the globe. The core concept is to create innovation villages, hyper-dense micro-networks that feed off of the power of proximity and spontaneous interaction.

HQ Raleigh is near full capacity, said Gergen, and they only unlocked the doors last week. Some companies haven’t yet moved in, and yet there are only one or two office suites still available in the new facility.

There’s no denying that there is traction in the market and a rising demand for co-working facilities (American Underground @Raleigh recently threw their opening party). It’s a trend that Raleigh’s economic development officials and policy leaders are noticing, supporting and promoting.

“We have built on the back of Research Triangle Park,” said Mayor McFarlane, “but this is our future.”