With virtual and flex offices long an option for home-based entrepreneurs, a Denver company has made it an opportunity as well, offering virtual office franchises to establish executive office suites.
In March, Intelligent Office opened its first New England location in Boston, a few days before Matrix Realty Group L.L.C. filed plans for a turnkey executive office suite service at the sprawling Matrix Corporate Center in Danbury.
With landlords offering short-term office space as a way to find a use for excess capacity, Denver-based Intelligent Office is allowing any entrepreneur to get into the business, having established locations on Long Island, N.Y., where Matrix is based, and in New Jersey, but with no revealed locations in Connecticut to date.
Getting into the business does not come cheap ”“ Intelligent Office estimates startup costs ranging between $300,000 and $500,000, covering everything from a fixed $30,000 franchise fee to leasehold improvements ranging anywhere from $30,000 to $120,000.
Given the large number of high-end small businesses in professional services in Fairfield County, there are perhaps a surprisingly minimal number of flex suite operators, which offer space on a month-to-month basis or longer term, along with “virtual office” services such as a receptionist to take calls and route them to a home office.
In Danbury, the new Matrix Executive Suites joins Plaza Executive Suites across town at 100 Mill Plain Road, which has been operating since 1991.
Stamford”™s newest operator is Stark Office Suites, which opened an executive office suite last year on the penthouse level of the Stamford Marriott overlooking the Long Island Sound.
Building and Land Technology says it achieved a 90 percent occupancy rate a few years after debuting its own office suite offering at 2 Stamford Landing in Stamford, while also operating a location at 1540 Post Road in Darien.
In addition to offering standard office suite and virtual office services, BLT promotes its center as an option for any businesses that need space in the wake of an unexpected disruption at their main place of business.
And giant Regus has five Fairfield County locations, with the largest executive office suite operator in the world having quadrupled its global membership base since the peak of the last economic cycle, to more than 1 million members in all.
Regus increased revenue at existing business centers 3.8 percent last year, but revenue was up just 2.2 percent in its Americas region. In addition to small business owners, the company counts large corporations in its membership base, to include Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn in the United States. The company says many of its customers have been with it for more than a decade, more than three decades for some.
Regus has two locations in Stamford at One Stamford Plaza and Soundview Plaza, as well as at 500 W. Putnam Ave. in Greenwich, 40 Richards Ave. in Norwalk and at One Reservoir Corporate Center in Shelton. The company is adding a second location in White Plains, its fourth in Westchester County, amid plans to open 200 locations globally this year. Through May, Regus had announced 15 new U.S. locations. The company is now looking to expand its business model to “third place” venues apart from office buildings (the “second place” being the home office), to include rail stations, airports and even retail locations such as Staples Inc.
After filing plans for an executive office suite offering in March, Matrix in May scheduled an open house later that month to showcase the suites, stating on its website that it has reserved 30,000 square feet for the service in the 1.3 million square foot Matrix Corporate Center.
