Window-facing desks for freelancers, private offices for startups and a small patch of faux grass soon will fill vacant space at the closed World Gym near Ward Avenue.

These are some of the plans George Yarbrough, co-founder of Impact Hub Honolulu, said he has for the 14,000 square feet that the co-working space is now renting at 1050 Queen St.

Co-working — a global movement where independent contractors, small businesses or professionals with flexible schedules share a working environment by leasing a spot daily or monthly— has been slowly picking up popularity in Hawaii since the first space, BoxJelly, opened in 2011. Over the last six years, a handful of similar centers have opened doors. And in July two more shared-space options — KouWork and Impact Hub — will be available in Hawaii.

“It’s a testament to the increased entrepreneurial activity here, as the current co-working spaces are at capacity and there is a clear need for more options,” said Meli James, president of Hawaii Venture Capital Association.

The local Impact Hub team has faced a two-year-long effort to get the Impact Hub franchise set up at long-term space in Honolulu, as Yarbrough had to secure a lease for what soon will be the largest center of its kind in Hawaii.

“We’re looking to provide a funky, cool space that can be big enough to hold a community,” Yarbrough said. “It’s not just building your business network. It’s not just building partnerships or improving your social circle, but more than that: really creating a community of people that care about each others’ wellness. They care about the financial stability of each other’s businesses.”

Co-working memberships at Impact Hub Honolulu range from $20 a day to $215 for a monthly membership, and from $677 to $800 for a private office.

“If you think of the amount of startup costs … infrastructure and your office needs, we can cut that out completely with simple co-working memberships,” said Anne Weber, co-working community manager of Impact Hub Honolulu.

Nine months after launching its pilot in 2014 as ProtoHub Honolulu, the space had 160 members representing over $12 million in collective annual revenue, and hosted more than 300 events, training and workshops. The team announced it was ready to expand in July 2015.

However, the co-working space founders faced some setbacks after their contract ended with their original landlord, Kamehameha Schools, one month after the space’s expansion announcement. Kamehameha Schools Communications Manager Aron Dote said the building that the co-working space was using was up for renovation. Kamehameha Schools offered a lease for a different space, but the two parties couldn’t agree on the changed terms.

“While we do support the idea of innovation, it has to be both socially, community and financially viable for all parties,” he said. “They’re new, but we are all for collaborative spaces. Like any other tenant, we do have to make sure they are financially sustainable and have a model that works for the community.”

AN August 2015 email that ProtoHub sent to its members said the co-working space was looking for “negligible rent with the plan to move to a larger location within the year with ramp-up rental rates so that by our year two we would be paying market rate rent on a 10-year lease.”

A $350,000 grant-in-aid from the 2016 state Legislature made the opening of the co-working space likely again. But founders faced difficulty finalizing a space until they linked up with World Gym. ProtoHub was set to transform into Impact Hub Honolulu once they found a larger space.

“The biggest challenge has been finding a space that would lease to us,” Yarbrough said. “It is very, very difficult to sign and lease a place in Hawaii. Everywhere is just booming. We can’t compete because we don’t have the history or the bank account to compete.”

BoxJelly CEO Rechung Fujihira, who is looking to open a second co-working space on Oahu, said getting landlords to understand the business model can be tricky.

“It’s a new category,” he said. “A lot of landlords don’t have any knowledge of the industry at all. It just takes time to understand (it).”

State agencies and members of the startup community said co-working centers like Impact Hub Honolulu are necessary to help build the innovation sector in Hawaii.

“It’s a good economic engine for Hawaii,” said Robbie Melton, who heads the High Technology Development Corp., a state agency created to facilitate the development and growth of Hawaii’s commercial high-tech industry. Melton said the sense of community and networking that the spaces provide can prove to be beneficial for businesses just starting out.

The Hawaii Strategic Development Corp. has said co-working, investment capital and accelerator programs are important to building an entrepreneurial community in Hawaii.

“Co-working spaces like Impact Hub provide critical support for our future entrepreneurs who are solving problems in new and innovative ways,” said Jill Sims, head of innovation deployment at Elemental Excelerator, a Hawaii-based program that helps startups and local businesses. “Adding a global co-working space with a mission to build a community around entrepreneurs … shows the growth of our innovation ecosystem.”

When Impact Hub Honolulu opens July 18, it will become a part of an international network of co-working spaces that includes 86 Impact Hubs around the world that have a combined membership of more than 15,000 professionals.