Executive suites bounce back

Preferred Office Club sees strong growth in D.C. market

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter By Toni Kistner, Network World, 04/12/05

When we looked at the executive business suites market more than a year ago - worldwide leaders HQ and Regus were struggling to recover from the downturn, and Preferred Office Club, the little guy in D.C., was hoping to build business by serving federal teleworkers.

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

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At the time, HQ was interested in telework, Regus wasn’t. Since, UK-based Regus has bought HQ.

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Then business started booming for Preferred Office Club. The firm opened two new centers in September and December, respectively, one on the Metro line in Alexandria, Va., next to the new Patent and Trade Office, the other just north of the White House. “Now three of our D.C. centers flank the White House,” says Angie O’Grady, vice president and chief operating officer of Preferred Offices, which owns four of the six centers.

Four of the centers are at 100% capacity; the two new ones are at 35%. “It usually takes a year-and-a-half to fill a center,” O’Grady says.

Preferred Office Club leases full-time offices to companies that typically need to expand quickly, or need temporary space. For example, Howard Dean leased space for the interim between coming to Washington and being officially nominated as chairman of the Democratic Party; a senator who’d lost his seat in November leased space while mulling over which law firm to join.

Usually, Preferred Office Club leases three to five offices er month. However, since January, it’s already leased 40.

“The D.C. market is one of the hottest in the country right now,” O’Grady says. “It’s not quite as crazy as it was during the tech boom, but the demand is pretty similar.”

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