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Alexander Grgurich, 23, knows what it’s like to be a business owner without an office. When he was just a sophomore at Drake University, Grgurich founded Rockstar Party Busses – and quickly grew tired of working out of coffee shops and his fraternity house.

He read about a trend called coworking, in which separate businesses work alone, but side-by-side in the same environment. Born was the idea for Foundry Coworking, a shared workspace at 1312 Locust St., in Suite 204 across from the Pappajohn Sculpture Garden in Des Moines.

The location, which features four private offices, six L-shaped desk workstations, a common area workspace, conference room and a lounge, opened in December and now houses seven businesses. Start-ups, entrepreneurs and freelancers can rent space in the suite, which Grgurich leased and renovated in a building owned by state Sen. Jack Hatch.

There are a variety of flexible packages, ranging from monthly rentals to day passes, and even the option of renting the conference room (see the Web site for pricing).

Grgurich believes networking is the key element that makes Foundry Coworking attractive to start-ups and entrepreneurs. Because lots of different people are coming in all the time, he said, it gives the other businesses access to those people.

“So it is just a beautiful networking hub,” Grgurich said.

Grgurich hopes to expand to about a dozen businesses from a variety of backgrounds.

Another benefit, he said, is that entrepreneurs and start-ups have a place to take clients, other than the nearest Panera Bread restaurant.

“If you are always meeting people at Panera, it is almost like code word these days for ‘I don’t have an office,'” Grgurich said. “We do have nice facilities and I think it really conveys the message to clients that they are committed enough that they’ve actually sought out their own space.”

And the best part?

“You won’t be meeting in a café full of screaming babies or soccer moms chatting away,” he said. “Everybody is really focused on doing business better. You will be around like-minded people.”

Beats the frat, anyway.