Burnt Canoe Studio is doubling down on New Orleans artists and makers, expanding from its original Mid-City campus to a second location a few blocks away at 739 S. Clark St. Founders Otway and Hannah Denny bought the 18,000-square-foot building for $1.6 million and are racing to finish renovations in time for an open house planned for early November.
The purchase marks a major leap for the coworking business the Dennys launched just three years ago, according to NOLA.com. The new campus, located off Tulane Avenue near Norman C. Francis Parkway, will include up to 35 studios and office suites, some of them designed to be reconfigured into smaller studio spaces as demand shifts. The outlet reports the Dennys spent nearly a year hunting for the right building before finding the Clark Street property, which had sat unoccupied for about a year and was most recently home to a general contractor.
The three-story structure comes with a bit of industrial history baked into its bones. Its ceiling beams date back to the 1880s, when a textile factory once occupied the space, and a prior tenant left behind a yellow pendulum that still hangs inside, per the same account. The Dennys have reportedly been working on the building nearly seven days a week for the past three weeks to get it ready.
From a 10-Studio Startup to a Creative Campus
Burnt Canoe's original campus at 4820 Banks St. in Mid-City has only 10 studios, but they were fully leased within a year of opening, NOLA.com notes. Tenants there include individual artists, painters, a tattoo shop and a nonprofit, according to the outlet's reporting. Burnt Canoe's own site describes the Banks Street location as home to “artists, makers, and small creative businesses,” with studio rent covering utilities, high-speed fiber internet, climate control and secure 24/7 coded access, per Burnt Canoe Studio.
Otway Denny has said he created the business to be a home for creatives, and the new Clark Street campus is designed to scale that mission up considerably. The second location will add larger offices, a business center, large-format printers, a makers space, lighting equipment and backdrops, and flex space for shows and classes, the report states. Burnt Canoe also plans to add an in-house framing shop, giving tenants another production resource under one roof. The company's website describes the Clark Street campus as its second New Orleans location, built for artists, designers, makers, independent professionals, nonprofits and small businesses, with access to shared work areas, common spaces, Wi-Fi, controlled access, on-site parking and community programming, according to Burnt Canoe Studio.
Riding a Wider Coworking Rebound
Burnt Canoe's expansion lands amid what NOLA.com describes as renewed traction for coworking spaces in New Orleans and across Louisiana after pandemic-era interest cooled. Nationally, the coworking market reached 8,854 locations by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 8,420 the quarter before, with total footprint growing from more than 152 million square feet to 159 million square feet, according to New Orleans CityBusiness.
That growth is unfolding even as traditional office space struggles. U.S. office vacancy rates hit a record 20.1% in the second quarter, the highest level since at least 1979, and Moody's projects the rate will keep climbing before peaking at the end of 2026, as reported by Axios. New Orleans has seen several entrants try to fill that gap, from Urban HUB opening its third metro-area location in Metairie to Common House converting the former Louisiana Children's Museum in the Warehouse District into a members-only workspace, per the same Axios report.
Elsewhere in the city, The Shop Workspace is targeting a mid-May opening for its own second location in South Market, a 5,400-square-foot space with private offices, dedicated desks, conference rooms and event space that New Orleans CityBusiness reports was already more than 40% committed as of its announcement. The Shop's original Contemporary Arts Center location has grown to more than 400 members across roughly 40,000 square feet, the same outlet notes.
A Name Rooted in Family History
Burnt Canoe Studio takes its name from a singed wooden canoe that belonged to Otway Denny's grandfather, who found it floating abandoned in a swamp and refurbished it as a piece of art, according to NOLA.com's reporting. Denny spent nearly a year searching for a rentable studio of his own before deciding to build Burnt Canoe instead, drawing on a background in woodworking and graphic design. Hannah Denny, who came from the culinary world and market research, has said there is a real need for more creative space in New Orleans, and the founders have pointed to demand from local artists, art-adjacent businesses and arts nonprofits as the driving force behind the expansion.
