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Square Feet- For Tight-Times,Ottice Space on Flexible Terms- NY... littp://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/business/2l suites.html?_r=IOa...
<br /> Some,industry officials say they believe weakness in the rental market will create attractive expansion
<br /> opportunities for business center operators.
<br /> Regus is the largest operator in the city,running suites under the names Regus and HQ. It leases office
<br /> space on long-term basis,and then sublets the space on a short-term basis to its own tenants.
<br /> Other business center companies that lease the space they later rent out include Rockefeller Group
<br /> Business Centers,Sunshine Suites and Wurk Environments,which is the operator of the new center at 1515
<br /> Broadway.
<br /> Some companies operate business centers in buildings they own. Besides Vornado, these include Edison
<br /> Properties,which operates a business center in the Hippodrome Building,at 1120 Avenue of the Americas.
<br /> In addition, Edison,which also owns Manhattan Mini Storage, rents out loftlike office spaces, marketed
<br /> tinder the name Workspace,in three of its storage buildings: 503o Broadway at 213th Street, 131 Varick
<br /> Street at Spring Street and 55 Vandam Street at Varick Street.
<br /> Another company, Pearl Realty,a Brooklyn-based developer,owns a turn-of-the-20th-century former
<br /> coffee factory at 155 Water Street in Dumbo,where Miguel McKelvey,the general manager,said$5 million
<br /> had been invested in refurbishing the building and starting up Green Desk.Jack Guttman,president of
<br /> Pearl,owns half of Green Desk.
<br /> Each of the building's six floors covers 4,000 square feet and is divided into some 30 offices.These range in
<br /> size from 25 square feet—one desk in an open cubicle — to a Soo-square-foot office that accommodates up
<br /> to seven people.
<br /> Monthly fees for Green Desk's tenants range from $375 for a one-desk cubicle to $3,50o for the
<br /> Soo-square-foot office; these charges cover Internet access but not phone service,which is extra. Besides
<br /> Mr. Humphrey, tenants include a calligrapher,a tour operator,an investment manager and a fashion
<br /> designer.
<br /> Wurk occupies the lith and 12th floors of 1515 Broadway. Each floor is 33,000 square feet,divided among
<br /> loo offices.With d6cor by Swanke Hayden Connell Architects that features Haworth modular office
<br /> furniture,and views of Times Square and the Hudson River,each floor has a reception area for a concierge
<br /> and other support staff,a cafe,a business lounge and conference rooms.
<br /> Monthly rents start at $t,5oo for an 85-square-foot office with one desk and a door that locks,and go as
<br /> high as $16,000 for an 800-square-foot office accommodating 14 people. Internet and telephone access
<br /> and other support services are an additional $40o each month for each person.
<br /> Edison's Workspace offices— which provide Internet capability but few other business center services—
<br /> range in size from t50 square feet,available for$65o a month at 503o Broadway, to 1,400 square feet,
<br /> offered at$5,00o a month at 131 Varick Street.Tenants include artists,graphic designers and film
<br /> production companies.
<br /> The depressed economy appears to be affecting operators differently. For example,Joseph DeTrano,a vice
<br /> president of Wurk,said it had signed up"more tenants than we had planned for at this point."
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