Starting your own business means finding a home for said
business. And if you're looking for options with more
versatility than your living room coffee table, you're in luck.
That's because a few new developments in the executive suite
market offer very attractive solutions for start-ups.
At ActivSpace in Seattle, founders Jude Siddall and Gary Romain
have established a variety of lease units that growing businesses
can use either as storage or as office space. The
smaller-than-usual units, ranging in size from 100 to 400 square
feet and between $100 and $700 per month in price, include heat,
light, power, restrooms, water, Net access, windows and
mailboxes.
With 10 locations in Washington, Oregon and California,
ActivSpace (www.activspace.com) had a waiting list almost from the
start. Even better, Siddall notes, is that some of her business
tenants say their overall productivity has increased 40 percent
since moving in: "They don't have to pack and unpack their
work like when [they're working on] the kitchen
table."
Content Continues Below
Businesses can also look into office space for sublease, says
Barry Spizer, president of both CCIM Institute, a commercial real
estate certification organization, and SRSA Commercial Real Estate
Inc. in Metarie, Louisiana. "Right now in a lot of cities,
there's a lot of sublease office space in the market," he
says. "Sometimes, the discounts are as much as 50 percent off
regular prices."
"Right now in a lot of
cities, there's a lot of sublease office space in the market.
Sometimes, the discounts are as much as 50 percent off regular
prices."
|
Especially with the recent trend in company downsizing, there
are quite a few tenants with years left on their lease agreements
who are more than willing to sublet some of that space to cut their
losses. And depend-ing on your relationship with the current
tenant, you may even be able to share things such as secretarial
services, fax machines, kitchen facilities and so on.
Even so, this kind of agreement still has some drawbacks.
Because you aren't the primary tenant, you really don't
have a relationship with the landlord if any problems should occur.
In addition, if the tenant ever defaults on the original lease
agreement, you are both out of there, no matter how prompt you were
with your payments, cautions Spizer.
Jorg Pierach, 36, founder of Fast Horse Inc.,
a public relations firm in Minneapolis, chose one other option:
sharing space with another company. Pierach wrote the agreement to
be renewable in one-year increments for maximum flexibility, he
notes.
After meeting through a mutual friend, the two companies now
share a kitchen, a conference room and a fax machine. It's a
delicate balance to maintain, says Pierach: "We make sure we
don't step on toes and abuse these privileges."