The coworking industry is gobbling up the office market like the Cookie Monster on an Ambien-fueled eating binge.

As coworking activity continues to increase in the U.S., including doubling inventory in the past couple of years in major markets, industry experts and asset owners are beginning to study what the future holds for this fast-growing segment.

In analyzing the likelihood of the growth to continue, industry experts at Newmark Knight Frank and JLL took a deep dive in separate reports into how this sector of commercial real estate is evolving. In NKF's report, the term coworking was used as an overarching term to describe coworking, flex office space and executive suites, which are defined as coworking spaces with employees of different companies operating within the same space, but without much interaction among members.

“There has been a lot of media coverage on current and past coworking and flexible office trends, but we have not seen much on what this might mean for the future of the office market,” said Newmark Knight Frank Associate Director Bethany Schneider, author of NKF's report.

“I find it really interesting how the coworking industry has grown so quickly,” Schneider said. “I remember writing about some of the first coworking leases in D.C. in 2013 — that’s pure coworking, executive office suites like Regus have been here much longer — and how it was such a novel trend at the time.

“Now five years later, those leases make up a major portion of our market’s demand, which I don’t think anyone saw coming at the time,” she said.

Overall, coworking is dominating the office market in cities including Austin, New York, Denver and Los Angeles. Newmark Knight Frank data showed rapid growth of coworking firms leasing office space in those markets between 2016 and 2018. Coworking made up almost a third of Manhattan’s office leases in August.