The Greenwood Collective has begun operations as a shared workspace for independent and creative-based businesses. This Collective provides individuals with a space to filter, solidify and refine their ideas within a community of like-minded thinkers. The GC’s space doubles as a venue for speaking engagements, educational workshops, and an attractive place to host private events. Co-founders Brett Schwager and Bryce Phillips are poised ready to finalize tenants and book events that will tie The Collective in with the greater Seattle community. The plans for The GC’s growth are staged in three phases with the first just underway. Phillips explains, “Right now we’re keeping things simple by attracting people like designers, architects, photographers, and computer programmers.” Phase two involves adding another 5,000 sq. ft level of industrial studio space tailored for woodworking, photography, or screenprintring. The final phase will cleverly incorporate a retail storefront facing popular Greenwood Avenue. This brick and mortar facade is an opportunity to give The GC exposure to the passerby and for Phillips to incorporate his visionary retail expertise into the mix.

Phillips is exited to add The GC to his portfolio of local business startups. He views the Greenwood project as a natural extension to his successful active urban brand Evo and his property development company Evo Properties. Phillips explains, “I’ve always felt business opportunities should work in synergistic ways, and The GC is an avenue for facilitating creative connections for people in Seattle, Portland, The Northwest, and beyond.”

His partner Schwager also sees The Collective as being the perfect platform on which to grow his design business. He feels, “There is tremendous opportunity in Seattle to make a freelance creative business pencil by working from home, but with that ease comes a major creative void. It’s burdensome when you’re expected to come up with innovative ideas but lack the foundation to get those ideas rolling. Having a variety of smart people around to bounce ideas off of is vital to any creative solution.”

In creating The Collective, Schwager and Phillips have fashioned a space that will attract innovative minds and businesses to share ideas with an engaged audience. Already in the lineup of speakers who will be sharing their ideas in Greenwood are Congressman Jay Inslee. His recent book Apollo’s Fire has drawn attention by the likes of president Bill Clinton as “the kind of visionary leadership that led to the Apollo moon landings in 1969” and will lead to a clean-energy future. Inslee’s presentation will be made to business leaders in Seattle interested in adapting their business plans to comply with future energy policies and discovering Inslee’s globally-scaled creative problem solving process.

This space in Greenwood is just beginning to bud. Now all Schwager and Phillips need to do is further define their core of business tenants and demonstrate that there’s reason to believe in their idea. The vision that led to the re-design of the 10,000 sq. ft. building that houses The GC is a creative problem solution in itself and will soon be the home for many innovative ideas to follow.