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SQUARE FEET
Working Alone, Together
Frances Roberts for The New York Times
MINI OFFICES Joe
Raby, left, and Cheni Yerushalmi, the founders and managing partners at
Sunshine Realty Management, with Amadeus, a 15-year-old Pomeranian, at
419 Lafayette Street, their company's second site. Current clients
include commodity brokers and a booker for rock performers.
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By ANNA BAHNEY
Published: December 26, 2004
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 HEN
Fernando Figueroa, the owner and only employee of a software
development and Web site design company called B Realm, fell behind on
his $550 monthly rent for a tiny 50-square-foot cubicle at 45 West 21st
Street, help came from an unlikely source: his landlord.
"I
wanted him to stay as a tenant," said Joe Raby, a founder and managing
partner at Sunshine Realty Management, which specializes in leasing
entire floors and then dividing the space and offering it to small
businesses and individual entrepreneurs. "An adventure travel guy moved
in, needed a Web site, and I referred him to Fernando. It helped him
get the business and pay the back rent." That was not a typical
commercial real estate transaction - nor was Mr. Raby's recent offer to
let Mr. Figueroa have free rent if he would sit at a desk just inside
the office space and sign for packages. But then this isn't a typical
office: a swimsuit designer is next to a direct-mail marketer; real
estate brokers are next to concert promoters; a 15-year-old Pomeranian
named Amadeus roams the space like a mascot; and tenants go
snowboarding with their landlords. To compete with other
post-dot-com office suite companies aimed at young professionals,
Sunshine Suites has adapted its offerings to include services beyond a
desk and a telephone. The tenants, many of them solo entrepreneurs,
benefit from being part of something larger. They can play on a company
softball team and get a year of free checking at a bank and
reduced-price gym memberships. More important, the bargaining power of
many companies together will allow tenants to gain access to group
health insurance, which tends to be cheaper than individual insurance
and is something that the company is working toward. The
availability of office suites is nothing new. Bruce Sklover has owned A
to B Properties at 32nd Street and Madison Avenue with 5,500 square
feet of enclosed offices for 18 years. "We have space ranging from 100
to 400 square feet," he said. At his center, where offices start at
$875 a month, occupancy has picked up in the past couple of years, but
10 percent of the space is vacant. Other suite companies have
grown in the past few years as a result of increasing demand for
flexible space. Regus Group, among the largest companies providing
serviced office space, has 750 locations in 60 countries. Mark L. J.
Dixon, the chief executive, said half of his clients are Fortune 500
companies. "There is little need to bring people all together
in one building," Mr. Dixon said in a telephone interview from one of
his office centers in London. "Interaction tends to take place in
meetings, and that can be done online or through video conferencing." While
that freedom may be a relief for people who have been accustomed to
tight corporate ties, entrepreneurs are often eager for connection
rather than independence. Mr. Raby and his partner, Cheni Yerushalmi,
have gained a following by offering affordable, attractive and
all-inclusive offices. Since opening in October 2001 and selling out
that November, the partners now lease 15,000 square feet on four floors
in two buildings: 21st Street and as of last week, 419 Lafayette Street.
The newest location has 59 work spaces, which can hold up to four
workers each, housing 80 to 100 companies. They will add another 8,000
square feet when they open the floor below in March. The two floors on
Lafayette Street, formerly used by the Internet company Razorfish, are
loftlike, with more than 25 windows each. The two owners did some of
the renovations themselves. With a waterfall, a conference room and a
chic-yet-functional stainless steel kitchen, it feels like a
post-collegiate flat-share. Initially, Mr. Raby and Mr.
Yerushalmi followed the existing model for executive suites, offering
enclosed offices. But they found that people tended to be more
interested in cubiclelike workstations for the cost-efficiency and the
proximity to others.
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