SuiteWorks still on track

Big customer wins, new financing offset construction woes

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter By Toni Kistner, Network World, 04/05/05

As promised, I’ve begun checking the health of companies offering (or planning to offer) third places to work. Here’s a quick list: SuiteWorks, TechSpace, Preferred Offices, 116 West Houston, The Office, Open Studio and, of course, Gate-3 Workclub, which recently shut down, prompting my investigation.

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Toni Kistner is managing editor of Net.Worker. Contact her at tkistner@nww.com.

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SuiteWorks, the Toronto start-up building full-service corporate telework centers around Toronto and eventually in the U.S., is putting the finishing touches on its first “telework office complex,” in Barrie, Ont. When we checked in last July, SuiteWorks was breaking ground and expected to open by September 2004.

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No such luck. A series of delays caused by Barrie’s construction boom cramped the project. But that didn’t keep SuiteWorks from winning another round of funding and a marquis client, IBM Canada. Existing clients include Nortel and Mailboxes Etc., with more announced soon, including a large financial institution.

“IBM was so important to us because it’s such a leader in distributed work,” says Bob Brehl, SuiteWorks’ vice president of corporate development and communications. IBM has 13 of its own mobility centers in Canada. SuiteWorks will be the first work space IBM doesn’t own that isn’t an employee’s house. “They won’t have the headaches of managing another building,” Brehl adds.

The facility is 95% finished, with SuiteWorks planning a “soft launch” in mid-May and a media event in June. Upon opening, Brehl says 120 of the 240 seats will be filled, putting the business at break-even. New funding ensures SuiteWorks will be solvent for at least 18 months.

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