Low Rent, High Class Offices

By Author: Larry Tang
Total Articles: 512
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Business districts in older sections of cities are undergoing a renaissance fueled in part by lower rents that attract new or existing companies that need to be close to their customers and suppliers.

Areas such as New York's Tribeca and Soho, which not too many years ago would have been written off as a business location have been transformed into vibrant, viable addresses, comments Mark Bassil, co-founder and vice president of MAiSPACE, a Mt. Olive, NJ, based manufacturer of modular office furniture systems. The scene is repeated across the country as old but solid buildings, many with attractive architectural details that would be too costly to duplicate in new construction, undergo renovation.

Bassil suggests that business owners needing to relocate for any reason should seek opportunities in what are generally termed Class B or C buildings. Whether planning to buy or rent, business owners with limited budgets can benefit from substantial savings over costs for Class A space in new construction, he says.

Class B or C space can also be found outside metro areas in underperforming shopping malls, ...
... warehouses or older office parks.

Once located, however, these spaces must be transformed into workspaces that attract and hold qualified staff. Business owners will have to decide whether to absorb the costs of a start from scratch renovation or seek what the industry calls warm space, says Bassil. The latter is defined as a basic finished interior including all plumbing, HVAC ceilings, fire protection and electrical service. The decision is usually made by weighing the location's attractiveness against the hard cash of renovations and rent.

The Art of the Deal

Whether the space is bare bones or warm, business owners will be faced with office furnishings or build outs in readying their new or expanded space for occupancy. Unless the business owner is the building owner, Bassil says, this can present some negotiating challenges, especially for spaces less than 10,000 square feet. He says that in today's market real estate brokers and landlords are not interested in smaller spaces, instead favoring tenants leasing 50,000 square feet and more. That effectively excludes a large market where, even if a deal were made, it could cost upward of $80 per square foot either up front or tacked onto the lease.

Bassil notes that taking on the job internally is also chancy. Like brokers and landlords, independent contractors show little interest in small projects, he says. Even if one were located the work seldom yields satisfaction because business owners immediately lose control in terms of quality, cost overruns and missed completion dates.

The right solution to the fitting-out challenge is a new type of smart and sophisticated systems furniture. Properly planned and sourced, these integrated interior solutions can be installed at less than half the price of a contractor build-out while at the same time providing factory-assured quality, increased flexibility and a guarantee of on-time completion. And by owning the systems furniture, businesses may qualify for depreciation tax allowances.

What's more, Bassil says, systems furniture such as offered by MAiSPACE is available in a stunning array of styles, colors and surface options at costs far below that of standard construction. He cites as an example a financial services organization that outfitted a 135,000 square foot call center comprised of 486 workstations at $12.00 per square foot installed. Included is a lifetime warranty and guarantee against obsolescence.

Modular furniture designs based on stackable panel systems such as MAiSPACE provides the flexibility needed in today's business world, Bassil says. These systems are flexible - even to the extent of providing floor-to-ceiling enclosed workspaces. They expand, contract or reconfigure to accommodate changing needs - in many instances without disrupting the entire workplace. The industry term is moves, adds and changes (MACs) and a system's ability or inability to accommodate MACs is an important long-term cost consideration.

All This and Cabling Too

In these modular systems horizontal voice and data cabling serving workspaces is configured as a zone distribution system employing plug-and-play factory terminated and tested modular cable connectors and assembles in copper or optical fiber. In the patented MAiSPACE design cabling is laid in behind lift-off panel segments for easy access to simplify adding capacity or rerouting networks, Bassil says. The system conforms to applicable industry standards such as TIA/EIA-568-B.1 . With such a cabling system reconfiguring an office floor plan can be accomplished in hours instead of days without disrupting the entire office local area network (LAN).

With today's high-quality office systems furniture available at attractive price points, business owners can put class A offices in Class B or C buildings, Bassil says. This goes a long way toward projecting a solid image to customers, and attracting and retaining qualified personnel. The time spent in evaluating systems vendors and their offerings is time well spent. Quality of construction, design flexibility, data handling capability, aesthetics, ergonomics and cost are areas of concern that must be addressed by business owners and managers. Check, too, into a vendor's ability to guarantee delivery and provide compatible products as the business expands.
MAiSPACE.com will help business owners and operators make smart choices in Office Cubicles and Systems Furniture for their offices and selecting the right Customized Systems Furniture for Law Offices.