Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 20, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Can 35 roommates cure loneliness? This co-living housing firm thinks so W ASHINGTONIANS are likelier to live alone than residents of any other major U.S. city, ac- cording to a recent study — a recipe for loneliness one European company sees as a business opportunity. Brussels-based Cohabs is buying up properties in D.C. with the aim of con- verting them into “co-living” spaces, where as many as 36 housemates will share common areas, events and — ac- cording to the firm’s marketing — a cure for urban loneliness. The company opened its first D.C. house last month. The property, for- merly two adjacent rowhouses in Col- umbia Heights, has been turned into a warren of 36 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, two full kitchens, six kitchenettes and two roof decks. Cohabs has purchased five other properties in D.C. and is aiming for more. In 2025, the company plans to buy a building a month, according to U.S. managing director Daniel Clark. “We could go pretty quickly to 500 beds and I think 1,000 beds is possible,” Clark said. An April study by the Chamber of Commerce, a real estate research com- pany, named D.C. the loneliest city in America, based on Census Bureau data showing 48.6 per cent of households in the city consist of just one person, the highest share of any U.S. city with a population of at least 150,000. Nation- wide, the study said, solo living has increased as people wait longer for marriage and children. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend. Cohabs’s model resembles another D.C. tradition that may or may not also cure loneliness, depending on how it works out: group house living. Generations of mostly young D.C. transplants, facing the prohibitive cost of living alone, have fumbled their way through Craigslist searches, open hous- es and awkward roommate interviews before landing in shared houses with questionable hygiene and tedious chore wheels but affordable rents. Cohabs blends that model with a dash of youth hostel, a pinch of college dorm and a layer of European-style “apartho- tel,” where hotel-style booking is used for apartment living. Rents are higher than in a typ- ical group house but lower than most one-bedroom apartments in the cen- tral, lively neighbourhoods Cohabs has targeted, from Logan Circle to Capitol Hill. In Columbia Heights, bedrooms that share bathrooms with one or two other residents start at 80 square feet and US$1,610 per month. Rooms with private bathrooms are US$2,095. Those rents include cleaning servi- ces, utilities, periodic group breakfasts and events, a full-size bed and other fur- nishings and basic communal supplies such as toilet paper, soap and olive oil. Cohabs already operates properties across Western Europe and has 17 houses in New York. The 10,952-sq.-ft. Columbia Heights building is the com- pany’s largest in the United States by bedroom count. The co-living model used by Cohabs isn’t new to D.C. and it’s had its share of mishaps. In 2016, WeWork opened its second WeLive location in Crystal City, a 216- unit apartment building with shared common areas. Five years later, fol- lowing WeWork’s public implosion, the building’s management was taken over by Common Living, a New York-based co-living firm that already had eight D.C. buildings. A 2022 Daily Beast story detailed a litany of tenant complaints at Common buildings; one D.C. resident called it a “nightmare” and “probably one of the worst experiences living somewhere I’ve ever had in my 38 years on this planet.” Last year, the German co-living com- pany Habyt bought Common Living. In June, Habyt announced Common was insolvent and all operations were be- ing suspended immediately. (A 60-suite Common project at the former Walter Reed campus in northwest Washington is now run by the apartment manage- ment firm Greystar.) Nest DC operates eight co-living build- ings in the city, with two more opening next year; another company, Oslo, has four. The i5 apartment complex at Union Market rents out co-living bedrooms alongside private apartments. Cohabs is different, according to Clark. For one thing, the company owns its buildings rather than making manage- ment arrangements with property owners. But “what sets us apart is the community angle,” he said — the group meals, the outings to places such as climbing gyms. The community aspect is part of what attracted Martin Beugeling. A 28-year- old from the Netherlands, Beugeling came to D.C. to work at the Dutch Embassy and initially lived in a group house in D.C.’s Chevy Chase neighbour- hood. But the neighbourhood was too quiet and remote for him, and he barely spent time with his roommates. “I was looking for a place that was more social, where I could meet other people,” he said. He’d heard about Cohabs from col- leagues who lived at the locations in Brussels. He reached out to the com- pany and moved into the Columbia Heights building on opening day. Beugeling is the archetypal Cohabs resident. More than half of residents are international, according to Clark, and most are between 25 and 35 years old. Cohabs’s leases start at three months, appealing to people who are more transient like Beugeling, who’s in town on a six-month work rotation. Ashley Doll grew up locally. But the 30-year-old Georgetown MBA student is looking to make a move from Arling- ton, Va., and she was drawn to how easy Cohabs made it to find roommates. So on a recent morning, she toured the Col- umbia Heights building with D.C. oper- ations manager Jessica Liu. “It’s an interesting concept,” Doll said after the tour. “I feel like it’s basic- ally like being able to find a place with roommates at a roommates price point without having to actually deal with finding roommates.” Clark aims to diversify the company’s housing offerings in D.C., with some properties offering larger units of up to two bedrooms. (Currently, bedrooms in the D.C. Cohabs are single occupancy, with no couples allowed, though guests are permitted.) He’s even eyeing the city’s push to convert office buildings to residential uses. For now, Beugeling’s only roommate is Aymen Chargui. The 27-year-old from France arrived in D.C. last month to work as an en- gineer for a French company. Friends from back home had told him finding good housing in the United States could be tough, and Cohabs seemed like a good way to avoid a difficult housing search. Plus, he didn’t know many people here and saw an opportunity to make friends. But until more people move in, he’s enjoying all the space — the equivalent of 18 bedrooms and a half-dozen com- mon areas to himself. “I don’t mind be- ing alone,” Chargui said. — Washington Post AARON WIENER AARON WIENER / WASHINGTON POST Aymen Chargui, 27, works on his laptop in one of the common spaces at Cohabs’s first D.C. location, in the Columbia Heights neighbourhood. Chargui is one of the first two residents of the new building. Sega’s resurgence rides wave of Japanese excellence in games SEGA is in a cultural renaissance — if only for the simple fact Sonic the Hedge- hog is hot on the tails of Disney’s prin- cesses and kingly lions at the box office. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cemented the series as the rare Hollywood block- buster trilogy acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. The blue hedgehog has become one of the main characters of meme culture, widely mocked since the turn of the century and now celebrated as a box office star. It’s all part of Sega’s plan to return to the cultural zeitgeist, said Shuji Ut- sumi, Sega’s CEO in America and Eur- ope. The confidence is evident in Ut- sumi’s media tour, where he evokes the company’s “rock-and-roll” spirit from the 1990s. “Gaming is becoming a centre for culture, like music and movies,” Utsumi said in an interview. “Sega intellectual property is aging very well to appeal to a wider audience. Our core audience includes filmmakers who understand games culture, so they can create inter- esting films and streaming shows.” Utsumi has been vocal about reviving classic titles from Sega’s impressive library of games, including a slate of franchise reboots for cult hits Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi and Shinobi. Last month, Sega announced the next in- stallment of Virtua Fighter, a series that hasn’t released a new entry since 2006. “This is not just a nostalgia effort,” Utsumi said. “We believe that it is im- portant for Sega to incorporate modern technological and gameplay updates into these projects. Our goal is to have all of our legacy IP titles provide new expression and play for modern tastes and preferences.” The early 1990s were the height of the Japanese firm’s success, but num- erous strategic mistakes and the failing arcade market forced Sega to retreat from making game consoles. In the early aughts, Sega struggled to find its identity, publishing countless games with varying quality. Last year, Sega had one of its best years for quality games. In January, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth sold a million copies in a week, the fastest ever for the long-running crime drama series. The role-playing high school adventure Persona 3 Re- load by Sega-owned Atlus quickly re- peated that feat, a record for that series. In October, Atlus released Metaphor: ReFantazio, which IGN and GameSpot named best game of the year. Sega ended the year by releasing Sonic x Shadow Generations, timed with the release of the Paramount film. Today, Japanese games have re- turned as a dominant force in the indus- try. Four of the five games nominated for the top prize at the Game Awards were from Asia, Metaphor among them. Sega’s current success owes much to Like a Dragon and Persona, two game series that centre Japanese people and culture. Utsumi, a veteran entertain- ment businessman who helped launch the Sony PlayStation and worked at Warner Music, pointed to the rally of other Japanese game publishers includ- ing Nintendo and Capcom. He credits the COVID-19 pandemic and its eco- nomic and social impact for introducing new audiences to Japanese entertain- ment and strengthening production. “After COVID, Asian culture saw an uplift with (South) Korean drama, K-pop and also Japanese games and anime,” Utsumi said. He added Japan did not have widespread debates about lockdowns, remote work and other issues surrounding the pandemic, which helped teams focus. Japan’s vaccination rate was relatively high as its govern- ment learned to live with the pandemic. “The impact was much smaller.” The recent Virtua Fighter announce- ment points to Sega’s ambitions. That unnamed project is being developed by RGG Studio, famous for its Yakuza/ Like a Dragon series and for making high-quality, gorgeous games at a fast pace. RGG released the massive Infinite Wealth last year, just a month after Like a Dragon Gaiden. Next month, Sega and RGG will publish Pirate Yakuza in Ha- waii. Virtua Fighter is a long-lost crown jewel, unearthed for a shining. Re- leased in 1993, the original introduced 3D graphics to video games, inspiring the breakthrough first-person 3D game Quake and the entire fighting genre. The new game’s announcement even earned a surprise appearance from Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the com- puter graphics firm that battles Apple for being the most valuable company in the world. In an announcement for the game, Huang said Sega “gave Nvidia our first big break” by commissioning it to cre- ate the Sega Dreamcast console. — Washington Post GENE PARK PARAMOUNT PICTURES Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was a box office hit, further pushing Sega back into the spotlight. B4 MONDAY JANUARY 20, 2025 ● BUSINESS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM BUSINESS ;