Another way to cut the commute

First in a two-part series

Rosemary Gama had come to lament her daily commute.

And who could blame her? The regional sales manager for a national magazine spent 3 hours in her car each day commuting from her Pembroke Pines, Fla., home to her employer's offices in Coral Gables.

In 1999, after 3 years of commuting, Gama had enough. But where could she find suitable workspace near her home? With family in the house, she wasn't keen on a home office. She still had to drive to Miami to visit clients, but Gama didn't want to waste her time stuck in traffic.

So in 1999, she left the corporate office and relocated to Stratis Business Center, an executive suite located in Plantation, Fla. From there, she's 20 minutes from home, 20 minutes from the airport or downtown Fort Lauderdale, and less than an hour's drive to Miami.

Not only did she cut her commute by 75%, but she also gained an office she could leave at the end of the workday and not become a slave to over the weekend.

"My clients didn't even know I moved from Coral Gables," she recalls of her early days in the new digs.

Across the country, some 4,000 business centers offer flexible space - from cubicles to private offices - at costs ranging from $500 to $2,500 per month, according to the Executive Suite Association, a trade group in Columbus, Ohio. Facilities are typically housed in high-end office space with conference rooms, making them a suitable placed to meet clients, vendors or co-workers. The centers also house other tenants, making them a more safe location to meet or work than the traditional home office.

Business centers often include conference facilities, high-speed Internet access, and receptionists or automated attendants and voice mail to answer calls in the tenant's or company name.

The office suite proved to be a boon to Gama's career as well. When her employer decided to relocate its regional office to New York, potentially displacing or relocating Gama and some of her 29 co-workers, she didn't flinch. While three co-workers moved with the company and the rest resigned, Gama convinced her boss - who had recommended she telework to eliminate the commute in the first place - that as a regional manager, she could effectively stay put in her alternative office and continue to do her job 1,000 miles from the company's New York offices.

And why not? Gama has all the tools of the corporate office. She has the camaraderie of 40 other teleworkers and entrepreneurs who work from the facility. And her company enjoyed significant cost savings by avoiding relocating Gama to New York - or worse, losing her if she quit.

Almost 2 years later, Gama still calls the space her office. While she continues to make frequent trips into Miami to visit clients, she routinely avoids the morning rush by stopping by her office first, then heading into the city later post-rush hour. And she's typically out of Miami before the afternoon rush begins.

"I am still able to service my Miami clients as if I were there," she says. "That's the important thing."

Next week, Part 2: A look at government- and corporate-sponsored telework centers.