The Pearl Works is Monterey’s newest coworking space — and aspiring community center.

Of the numerous aphorisms about building the kind of life one wants to live, and creating the kind of community one wants to be a part of (“Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself”; “Build it and they will come”; etc.) it seems unlikely that any were written about starting a coworking space. But for Alora Daunt, that’s the forum.

Daunt is a cofounder of The Pearl Works, a coworking space in downtown Monterey that opened in October 2021. For the unfamiliar: Coworking is a shared office space concept where entrepreneurs or remote professionals can rent a desk within a workspace that allows them to get out of the house (or stop hogging the outlets at the local coffee shop) and, potentially, meet fellow entrepreneurs and remote professionals. It’s a model that grew in tandem with the internet startup boom of the early 2000s, and went mainstream with the rise (and subsequent fall) of WeWork.

The Pearl Works is located inside a somewhat imposing building at 288 Pearl St., on the corner of Houston. Inside the space is light and bright, filled with plants and, thanks to a partnership with the Emerging Artists Alliance, decorated with colorful art. On a recent Thursday afternoon, there are a couple of people working from the high-top shared tables, a man reading in a comfy chair and one woman going through the process of setting up her new membership. There is a shared kitchen with Captain + Stoker coffee and loose-leaf Rishi tea, booths for private phone calls and three conference rooms that can be rented out. Membership runs $325 for a dedicated desk, with other tiers for part-time or private office space.

In other words, it’s a classic coworking space. It is also, for Daunt, a contribution – and, she hopes, an emerging community space that people will get more out of than just fast wi-fi.

Daunt grew up in Monterey before moving away for college. In 2019 when her parents bought the long-empty building at 288 Pearl St. (her mother, Heidi Daunt, is a long-time local entrepreneur and founder of Treehouse Mortgage Group), she was working in a community yoga, events and teahouse space in San Francisco. “We just determined that this is something Monterey needed,” Daunt says.

They planned to open in 2020, but then the pandemic hit. Daunt moved home. “I never thought that I would be coming back here,” she says. But by the fall of 2021 there she was – living in her childhood home and preparing to launch a new business. “We need a name for it,” she says, of the young adults who moved home during those early months of the pandemic and then stayed.

Back in Monterey, Daunt began thinking about what kind of people she might want to bring into the space, and landed on three foundational values: contribution, cross-pollination and sustainability. She observed a growing number of young people who want to make some sort of contribution, but aren’t sure what it is yet. She also noticed that there aren’t many opportunities for people of different generations to spend time together and thought maybe The Pearl Works can be a venue for this kind of inspiration and generational cross-pollination.

“We have all of the building blocks to have a really vibrant community,” she says, of Monterey. But “it’s hard to find people.” Maybe The Pearl Works will be the place to make those discoveries.

It’s still early days. The space isn’t full yet, though a growing number of entrepreneurs and remote professionals call it their work-week home. And Daunt has held some events in the space – for example a November movie night featuring a documentary about the fast-fashion industry, a partnership with the nearby fabric and crafting store Slowfiber. Daunt wants to host more (Book clubs? Financial literacy classes? Simple end-of-week happy hours?), taking clues from members on what they want and need.

“Monterey is ready for something like this,” Daunt says.

THE PEARL WORKS is located at 288 Pearl St., Monterey. More at www.thepearlworks.com.