The retail section of the AvalonBay development at the Harrison Metro-North train station has its first street-level business in place with the July 25 opening of a Daybase outlet. Daybase provides space for people to work when they elect not to or can”™t commute to an office and at the same time are unable or unwilling to work at home. The location at 326 Halstead Ave. is the second in what Daybase intends to be a widespread network.
Daybase was started by a group that had worked together at the co-working space company WeWork, which as of March 31 reported having a system-wide real estate portfolio consisting of 765 locations in 38 countries.
Village of Harrison Mayor and town of Harrison Supervisor Richard Dionisio, members of the Harrison Town Council and Harrison Planning Board, Westchester County Executive George Latimer and Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins were among those attending the ribbon cutting and opening of Daybase”™s 5,000-square-foot street-level retail space.
“We learned so clearly in the past two years we really need to rethink the nature of work, especially where it takes place,” Steinhaus said. “Even before the pandemic, the idea of spending hours commuting five days a week away from your neighborhood, away from your community, away from the rest of your life to sit in an office all day was a bit outmoded and at the same time working from home presented some challenges. Not everyone has a reliable work-from-home setup. The distractions, the demands of being at home can prevent us from effectively doing our jobs. We founded Daybase to give everyone with this new hybrid working life a better workday.”
Steinhaus explained that if an employer has a policy that requires workers to be in the office three days a week, that company”™s employees could use a Daybase facility near their homes for all or part of the other two days. Daybase”™s concept offers pay-as-you-go pricing as well as membership fee options.
“We created Daybase for the times when your office is too far, but home is too close,” Steinhaus said. “Not only does Westchester County have a vibrant economy in its own right, it is also home to thousands of Manhattan office workers who used to commute into New York City five days a week.”
Dionisio said, “I believe this is a great thing for our town. It is moving us forward. We”™re all behind them, we wish them success and we”™re here to help in any way that we can.”
Latimer said that the opening of Daybase reflects making adjustments to changes in our way of life and daily routines.
“I still remember the days when I was in Manhattan running to a bank of pay phones to dial a number and talk to someone,” Latimer said. “Accepting change is what this is about. Harrison was one of the original economic development corridors in Westchester County when the Platinum Mile was created. Now here we are; it”™s 30 or 40 years later, and Harrison once again is at the edge.”
Latimer noted that the Daybase location is in the heart of Harrison, unlike the major corporate parks that positioned their workforces away from the downtown.
“We wanted to build a product that would actually enable people to be engaged and productive during the times they weren”™t going into that hub office, and during the times that home just didn”™t work for what they needed to accomplish,” Steinhaus told the Business Journals. “That product and that experience are intended to be completely flexible, consumed completely on-demand, meant to be conveniently located. It”™s really intended to be for a handful of hours a day during the days when you”™re not going into that hub office.”
“Our intention is to find local partners who want to be owners and/or operators of the Daybase concept in basically every town across the country because we believe so deeply that the demand is there for this kind of product,” Steinhaus said. “We also think that what hasn”™t existed in the past is a consistent enterprise-grade place to do work that you can pop into and out of and only consume on-demand when you need it. That”™s what we”™re trying to build here. A really scalable way of expanding physically is through franchising. It”™s a tried-and-true methodology for this.”
Steinhaus said that the company would be reaching out to landlords who have vacant retail space.
“We do think we”™re a solution for landlords to monetize excess space, to monetize space that”™s been empty, to monetize space that”™s been in transition,” Steinhaus said. “We are very excited to partner with landlords. Our franchise community will include landlords but it won”™t be exclusive to landlords.”
