With a career that spans more than 20 years in commercial real estate and business workspaces, John Arenas sees a shift in employees”™ work habits, especially those of “knowledge workers,” that the corporate office parks of Westchester County are not designed to accommodate. At Serendipity Labs Inc., the third company he has started since 1996, Arenas is launching what he sees as a real estate solution and bridge between home and corporate offices for that new and growing breed of worker.
In Rye, Arenas is converting a former Chrysler-Jeep dealership that closed four years ago in the auto industry”™s recession-driven crash into a 7,000-square-foot members-only workplace. Due to open in early October in the former Biltmore Motors building at 80 Theodore Fremd Ave., it is the first in a regional network of Serendipity workplaces that Arena plans to open, either as company-owned or franchise operations, from Boston to Washington, D.C. He said he has franchise candidates in five states.
In Manhattan, Serendipity Labs soon will close on a lease for its second center within one-half block of Grand Central Terminal. Scheduled for a staggered opening later this year and in January 2013, the midtown office “will actually create a point of connection between Westchester County and the city” for Serendipity members, the Rye resident said.
Arenas said 30 percent of the nation”™s knowledge workers are no longer tied to the corporate workplace and that percentage is expected to double by 2020. “These knowledge workers are now choosing where they work and how they collaborate, the same way they choose their own mobile devices,” he said.
“Real estate really hasn”™t caught up with how we work. You”™ve got this mismatch of how real estate is and how real estate needs to be. This is a way to meet the demand that”™s out there. It”™s about collaboration and it”™s also about mobility.”
Suburban locations such as Serendipity”™s in Rye are designed to relieve the isolation and lack of human interaction of working at home, said Arenas, while keeping members within their communities rather than isolated on office campuses such as those along Westchester”™s Platinum Mile. The company is looking for “6 by 16” locations where “six days a week, 16 hours a day, there”™s something going on.”
“It”™s not traditional office space,” he said. “It”™s designed to be close to home but also accessible to restaurants, shopping. It”™s a synthesis” of work and personal life.
Though Serendipity Labs offers individual rather than corporate memberships, Arenas said the company could provide managed services for companies that “want to create Serendipity Labs in their own buildings.”
Arenas said he does not see the county”™s existing office business centers as direct competitors with Serendipity. Five workplace companies operate about 10 office centers in the county, according to Tracey DiBrino. DiBrino in July left one of those companies, Carr Workplaces in Harrison, to join Serendipity as general manager in Rye.
“I think a lot of alternatives (business centers) are about space,” DiBrino said. “We”™re about membership.”
“Our technology here is really cutting edge and very different from what the business centers offer,” she said. Serendipity members will be served by a proprietary cloud-based technology platform.
Knowledge workers today, said Arenas, “are looking for more of a branded experience” in their choice of workplaces. “We”™re building more of a branded-hotel brand rather than independent locations.”
Joining Serendipity as a strategic partner in that effort is Steelcase Inc., a minority equity investor in the company. Steelcase is providing temporary office space for Serendipity staff in the Rye office of its office furniture dealer, Waldner”™s Business Environments. Arenas said Steelcase wants to add hospitality and service components to its office furniture business.
“We believe we can help power exceptional experiences in this next generation of workplace-as-a-service solutions,” Steelcase vice president John Malnor said in a statement. “Our involvement with Serendipity Labs is consistent with that goal.”
As corporations reduce their headquarters space, Arenas said his new company wants to create for “untethered” knowledge workers “a collaborative environment that”™s not their home and not their cars.”
This is not the first venture for Arenas as an office workspace provider. In 1996, he established Stratis Business Centers, which grew to be an 11-state network of office centers under his leadership as CEO. Regus plc acquired the company in 2001. Arenas moved to Westchester County to serve as president and general manager of the Regus Americas division.
“Some of the same team from Stratis is back on board for this one,” he said. “They want to join another quest. This is the next generation of space.”
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