So what attracted Jolles to the Crossroads? “The creative people,” he said.

“It had this complete set of characters that were a lot like me, a bunch of rebels,” Jolles said, smiling. “I also loved the architecture. I loved what all of these buildings looked like. I saw the potential.”

Jolles began purchasing, renovating, and brokering many of the run-down warehouses in the area. He became so passionate about the Crossroads community that he even served as president of the Crossroads Community Association.

That passion for community is what, in 2008, led Jolles to pitch his real estate business partner, Mike Edmondson, on a different type of project — coworking. OfficePort, a coworking space in the Crossroads District, was born.

In an area where most of the commercial spaces averaged 5,000 square feet, Jolles routinely received calls from small businesses requesting small spaces and had nothing to offer them. He saw one-person companies, banking on strong future growth, taking up pricey and risky contracts for office space. “The overhead,” Jolles explained, “would kill them in a year.”‘

- Excerpt from Annie Sorensen’s most recent article on Shaul Jolles, co-founder of OfficePort, and OfficePort Kansas City. For the full article visit siliconprairienews.com.

Shaul Jolles grew up in Israel. After getting his Masters from UMKC’s Bloch School, he became a commercial real estate broker focused on adaptive re-use of buildings in the Crossroads Arts District, where he also served as the President of the Crossroads Community Association. A serial entrepreneur and community organizer, Shaul focuses on helping small businesses flourish.  He is the co-founder along with Mike Edmondson of OfficePort, an innovative co-location environment with offices in Kansas City and Chicago, and StagePort, a sound stage complex adjacent to it. He initiated the effort that led to KCMO’s winning response in the Google Fiber project and hosted “Kansas City Get Online” seminars by Google.