Spacious, a startup that turns high-end restaurants into coworking spaces during the day. "There’s a mental and psychological perk [to the setup]," she says. "There’s a different mood when you leave your home office versus a restaurant. I can either leave when I’m done with my work or I have a choice of staying for happy hour. It doesn’t feel like I’ve left a long workday." She’s tried working from home or from Starbucks and found neither environment conducive to her work.

The Talk Shop charges nothing and will be open through April 13 at the West 37th Street space, which was brokered through Chashama, an organization that connects arts groups with underutilized real estate in the city. Passersby can see into the salon, and can watch Mr. Redleaf and his team of “shop talkers”—people including comedians, drag queens, authors and a life coach who help keep the conversations going—as they talk to whomever comes in. To make the Talk Shop inviting, Mr. Redleaf set up a beach umbrella and chairs, hung a string of lights and painted the walls lemon yellow.

the Oxford Exchange is built into a renovated 100-year old brick building on Kennedy Boulevard across from the University of Tampa, and combines an intimate bookstore, a Buddy Brew coffee bar, a home design retail store, a TeBella tea shop, and a gourmet restaurant.

"with the advent of people buying everything on the Internet, the question is what will retail spaces become? I think people want a social interaction, so we designed this space with that in mind."