With shared-office rentals filling up in Portland, one local entrepreneur is testing the waters of the Presumpscot River to see if he can attract a significant number of tenants to Westbrook.

Peter Anania Jr. opened LocalHost Coworking in November in downtown Westbrook’s Dana Warp Mill at 90 Bridge St. Selling points for the project include free parking and offices and desks with gorgeous views of the river.

Anania said the 2,000-square-foot office suite already has 10 tenants, and that he is talking to the mill’s owner about adding 8,000 additional square feet of co-working space on the floor above.

“It’s been going great,” he said. “We’re probably a little bit past half-full.”

Co-working spaces provide a less expensive alternative to traditional office rentals. A typical co-working space offers dedicated offices or desks, and unreserved “floating” desks that can be used by anyone when available.

LocalHost charges $450 a month for a large office overlooking the Presumpscot River, $275 for a regular office, $200 for a dedicated desk and $125 for a floating desk.

The rent price also includes access to business-class Internet service and other shared resources such as a conference room, printer and mailbox.

Leases are month-to-month and no deposit is required, Anania said.

Over the past several years, shared-office projects have taken off in Portland and around the country. Success stories in southern Maine include Think Tank and Peloton Labs.

Anania said such spaces are appealing to small companies, independent contractors and remote employees who otherwise would be working from home.

“They want to get out of the house,” he said.

Still, not all co-working space providers in the Portland area have succeeded. The Casco Bay Tech Hub’s co-working space at 30 Danforth St., known as the Business Innovation Center, closed in May after two years of existence. Founder Tom Hall cited a lack of paid sponsorships for what was supposed to be a semi-philanthropic endeavor, and the need to reallocate manpower to his Internet marketing business.

Like Hall, Anania also runs a marketing business, called New England Marketing Group. It now operates out of an office inside LocalHost. Anania said he sees the co-working space as a “pilot project” with great potential because of Dana Warp Mill’s popularity and the shortage of available, affordable office space in Portland.

“We’re trying to break down the barriers of a traditional office space,” he said.

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