St. Pete Cat Coworking Space To Celebrate Grand Opening

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Diane Emery has long been a self-described dog person.

Now, she’s opened the first cat coworking space, Whiskers Workplace, which she believes is the first of its kind in Florida.

The space, which features adoptable cats from CJPaws Rescue, hosts its grand opening celebration March 21, 2 p.m.

Emery unexpectedly fell in love with cats later in life when she adopted a cat.

“It was my first cat in my whole life. My mom was allergic and I didn’t really know about cats,” she told Patch. “I was bit a lot of times. I didn’t know how to interact with a cat. They are not dogs.”

Then, after decades of operating a court reporting business in downtown St. Petersburg, she decided to move further west in the city and bought the building at 4699 Central Ave. in September 2019 as her lease at the SunTrust building was ending.

Just as she was moving into the new space months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and all court proceedings were held virtually.

“COVID slowed everything down and by the time we moved in, we didn’t need the office space at the time,” Emery said. “Everybody was on Zoom.”

During this time, she continued renovating the space, waiting for the pandemic to end. But things never fully went back to normal.

“Nobody came back from COVID,” she said. “We were busier than we’d ever been as a court reporting business, but 90 percent of it is still on Zoom.”

When estate attorneys she knew started telling her about clients who had died and left behind cats with no place to go, Emery helped find the animals new homes.

“There was no place for these cats. They were some lady’s lap cats and their families wanted to just throw them out, or there was no family,” she said.

This is how she and two friends founded CJ Paws Rescue, a certified PetSmart charity. The rescue’s adoptable cats were also previously featured at the Sunshine City Cafe.

When the cafe closed, Emery found herself with 30 cats that had nowhere to go. So, she decided to dedicate the 4,200 square feet that was unused on her building’s second floor to the animals.

“I didn’t know what to do with them, so they came here,” she said.

She removed the conference tables and created kitty lounges with couches and chairs.

Since Emery wasn’t licensed to serve food, she decided to turn it into a coworking space.

“I think we’re really the first with this kind of setup,” she said. “Behind the whole vision we want to have people into the space to work, people who love to have therapeutic cats in their space.”

Unlimited monthly passes are available for $240 a month, while 40-hour passes cost $100.

Students get a discounted membership at $50 and day passes are available for $30.

She also plans to make the space available to rent for birthday parties and book clubs, and to host her own events, like cat yoga and meditation with cats.

Any profits will be used to support the cat rescue.

While Whiskers Workplace held a soft opening in August, an October ribbon cutting was postponed because of the back-to-back hurricanes. In fact, the coworking space was used as a storm shelter for fosters and other cats in the community.

“We had 100 cats sleeping on the floor and people sleeping on the floor and dogs and rabbits. It was fun,” Emery said. “But it was a giant bump in the road.”

Now, the space is fully open to the public and celebrating its opening on March 21. The event will feature raffles, giveaways and other activities.