The city of San Marcos will not provide funding for a co-working space—for now, at least.

On Tuesday night San Marcos City Council discussed providing seed money to launch a co-working space—a facility where entrepreneurs, freelancers and small businesses share a workspace and often collaborate on projects—but after more than an hour of discussion decided to hold off on committing funding to the project.

Instead, council created a subcommittee to further vet the possibility of starting a co-working space in the city. The subcommittee includes council members Scott Gregson, Ed Mihalkanin and Jane Hughson.

Carina Boston Pinales, a San Marcos resident and co-working advocate, presented council with a plan that would require $15,000 of public money to launch the effort for three months or $75,000 for six months. The goal, Pinales said, would be to bring in private-sector investors and make the project sustainable without public funding.

Pinales cited the benefits of co-working, including access to resources such as office equipment, a physical mailing address and networking opportunities afforded by co-working. The possibility of stemming some of the "brain drain" that occurs when Texas State University graduates leave the city to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions was also mentioned several times during the discussion.

“I would be incredibly excited to see one of these start up in San Marcos,” Council Member Lisa Prewitt said.

Gregson said he hoped to see a more detailed plan spelling out how Pinales planned to attract private investment. Mayor John Thomaides said he was hesitant to commit public money to a project he felt could be addressed by the private sector.