Most days, it’s been the same routine inside Brittany Lawton’s living room.

“My boyfriend and I have both been working from home since the beginning of coronavirus,” said Lawton, a Colonie native who now lives in Troy.

She said trying to run your own marketing firm while your boyfriend sits a few feet away can be a challenge.

“Unfortunately, our place isn’t equipped to handle both of us working from home so it’s been kind of a unique situation,” Lawton said.

After six months, Lawton is finally getting out of her apartment.

“It’s exciting, it makes me feel even if I only come one or two days a week, I know I’m going to have a really productive time,” Lawton said.

Lawton now plans to spend a good deal of time just across the river at Harmony Coworks in Cohoes, the city’s first ever co-working space. When she stepped through the doors, walked into the office, and chose her desk last week, she became the new business’s first ever customer. 

“I love the space. I love that all the furniture is very different and also very divided, yet, open,” said Lawton, whose company is called Highly Caffeinated Marketing.

There’s room for 20 socially-distanced people and the space offers individual desks, shared work zones, and a handful of private offices.

Rod Dion is Harmony Coworks’ owner.

“The move has been great for us. Our customers are finding us and now we have a nice new modern building we own,” Dion said.

Harmony Coworks occupies the same building on Mohawk Street where Dion just opened a brand new showroom for his other business, Tech Valley Office Interiors.

“We realized it was much more space than we could ever use,” Dion said.

After 15 years running the Office Furniture Supply Company in Albany, relocating to Cohoes has allowed Dion to return to his hometown. 

“It’s actually been a better experience than I expected. The city has been very welcoming to us,” Dion said.

Dion works closely with other leaders in the city, which is home to several other businesses that have opened in just the past few weeks. He believes the resurgence is years in the making.

“We are definitely on the cusp of something. You can feel it,” he said while walking a few blocks through downtown last week.

During a time when offices across the world have been emptied, even Dion questioned the timing of his new venture.

“Have I just made the biggest mistake of my life buying this building and having this concept and people are never going to go back to work?” he said. “Halfway through this pandemic, it’s been the opposite. We’ve been pleasantly surprised.” 

Dion is banking on the hope that more young professionals like Lawton will be itching to get back into a more traditional setting. 

“I think that people are looking for this. Like this working from home is getting old,” he said.

The opportunity to get out of her apartment is something Lawton said she plans to take full advantage of.  

“I am so excited to get out of the house, see some friendly faces, and actually have an opportunity to get work done and feel really productive,” Lawton said.