‘Virtual’ Offices Thrive as Business Downsize
Author: Jack Snyder, Sentinel Staff Writer
They’re certainly not immune to tough times, but a bummer economy can mean business for executive-suite operators. Although conventional office space vacancies and the amount of sublease space available in metro Orlando are climbing, executive suites have seen a surge in revenue from “virtual offices.”
The virtual office client occupies no space, but the company’s telephone is answered and its mail is handled along with other basic services.
“It gives a company an identity and keeps them in business with a running office,” said Nicole Collins, office coordinator for The Intelligent Office at Capital Plaza in downtown Orlando.
A virtual office can cost as little as $75 a month.
Cathy Price, owner of Execu-Suites Inc. in Orlando, said her virtual office business “has exploded” in the past few months. She also has seen an increase in business from companies downsizing, leaving high-priced space for smaller, less expensive quarters.
Some businesses have slashed their office rental costs from $5,000 a month to $1,500 a month, she said.
The economy has been cooling for most of this year and nearly came to a standstill after the September terrorist attacks.
Price said her downtown operation at the former Angebilt Hotel building was at 100 percent occupancy this time last year. She’s now about 90 percent.
The Intelligent Office also is holding at high occupancy, Collins said. The company, which opened in downtown Orlando last year, thinks the market will rebound from the current softness. It’s opening a second office early next year at Millenia in southwest Orlando.
Price also recently expanded, opening a second office in southwest Orlando at the AmSouth Building off Kirkman Road.
But the down market is hurting many operators.
Michael Dye, executive vice president of Atlanta-based EBC Office Centers which has operated in Orlando since 1984, said there is some business bounce from downsizing companies, but the economic decline still hurts.
EBC, which operates in the Southeast, said occupancy is off 12 percent to 14 percent, Dye said.
Dot-com failures hurt the company both in Orlando and Atlanta. “I think most of the companies we have now will make it,” he said.
EBC operates centers in Lake Mary, Maitland and Celebration and will open a fourth location soon.
The 4,000 executive-suite operations around the nation have seen business slow this year, but things now seem to be rebounding, said Jeannine Windbigler, executive director of Office Business Centers Association International, a Columbus, Ohio-based trade group.
Industry proponents think we’ll see even more executive-suite operations as the economy recovers.
But the industry’s largest player — HQ Global Workplaces Inc. – is retrenching.
HQ is closing 36 centers around the country, including its operation in Lake Mary and one in Tampa, according to the Alliance Business Centers Network, an organization of executive-suite operators.
The company still has three Orlando locations.
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Abstract (Document Summary)
The Intelligent Office also is holding at high occupancy, [Nicole Collins] said. The company, which opened in downtown Orlando last year, thinks the market will rebound from the current softness. It’s opening a second office early next year at Millenia in southwest Orlando.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
