Mixed-use property refers to a type of development that combines elements of residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment-based property into a single, cohesive unit. These properties are designed to foster a closer integration of different aspects of daily life, promoting convenience, and efficiency. By bringing together various functionalities, such as living spaces, office areas, retail, and entertainment venues, mixed-use properties embody a modern, holistic approach to urban planning.

The importance of mixed-use properties in the contemporary urban landscape cannot be understated. In the context of the United States, these developments serve as catalysts for community revitalization, facilitating social interaction, reducing commute times, and contributing to a more sustainable way of living. Economically, they also often provide property owners with an attractive investment opportunity with potentially higher returns, due to the diversified revenue streams they offer.

At the intersection of this modern real estate trend, Offices.net plays a vital role in connecting businesses and individuals with the perfect mixed-use commercial spaces. With a comprehensive listing of executive office suites, shared workspaces, flexible office spaces, and more, Offices.net makes the process of finding and moving into mixed-use commercial properties in the United States as straightforward as possible. Whether you are looking for a fully equipped, turn-key small office rental or a creative shared space, Offices.net’s free search tools can help you navigate through the options available online. Read the rest of this entry »

When looking for new office premises, you may notice that listings advertise office space using different terms, such as usable, rentable or common area square footage. It’s important to understand what each of these terms means, so you can choose an office that suits your space requirements and budget.

In this article we look at the differences between usable, rentable, and common area square footage, and we discuss what tenants need to be aware of when evaluating and budgeting for their space requirements.

Usable Square Footage

This refers to the amount of space each tenant has exclusive access to. The specific inclusions and exclusions vary depending on whether the office in question takes up an entire floor, or the floor is shared with other tenants.

In full-floor setups, usable square footage includes every area within the floor, whether it’s used by office workers or not. This includes workspaces, restrooms, kitchens, breakout rooms, common areas, reception areas, meeting rooms, hallways, as well as rooms used for technical and janitorial purposes. The only exclusions are any areas that aren’t exclusively used by the tenant occupying that floor, such as stairwells or elevator shafts. These are part of the unit’s gross square footage, which isn’t taken into account for determining lease rates.

In multi-tenant floors, usable square footage includes workspaces and any other rooms allocated for the specific use of each tenant. For example, shared bathrooms or kitchenettes wouldn’t be included, but if each tenant has exclusive use of a restroom, this is added to the office’s total usable square footage.

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The following is the sixth in our series focusing on providing information on the various types of office space available, from business parks to hot desking and project space, business incubators, conventional office accommodation to virtual office space options, managed offices to shared co-working options.

Typically located in business districts of larger cities, serviced offices are becoming more of a standard and less of a trend for today’s small business owner. And why not? Renting a serviced office space cuts down on a number of issues and costs associated with having an office. Most importantly, rental of a serviced office space provides an immediate solution to the office space problem.

The Whole Package

Serviced offices are ready to go as soon as you sign the agreement. There is very little delay between deciding to open an office and actually having an office ready for business.

Serviced offices are usually rented on a month to month basis, as opposed to the long term three to five year commitment of a traditional office space lease. The monthly rent may appear to be slightly higher than the traditional lease price, but the whole package aspect of serviced offices makes them a better deal. New businesses, start-ups, and small businesses may neglect to calculate the additional costs of furnishings, equipment, and staff when they consider opening an office. The whole package concept eliminates the worry of those forgotten expenses.

Rental costs frequently include the costs of:

Furnishings

Businesses can begin straight to work on the first day without any delays waiting for deliveries of desks, lamps, bookshelves, or chairs. A serviced office includes all of these. In addition, conference rooms, kitchens, meeting spaces, and other shared amenities are available as needed. Conference rooms, for example, can be rented by the hour as an addendum to your office space lease. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is the fifth in our series focusing on providing information on the various types of office space available, from business parks to hot desking and project space, business incubators, conventional office accommodation, managed offices to shared co-working options.

For a business in need a prestigious office address and presence without an office lease, virtual office options are a great solution.

What is a Virtual Office?
A virtual office is a most effective solution to the dilemma faced by small businesses and entrepreneurs. Virtual offices provide an address, usually in a recognized business district, and other amenities that allow users to maintain a professional image without having to maintain a high cost conventional office space.

Why have a Virtual Office?
A virtual office allows work from home entrepreneurs more economic efficiency. Having a virtual office helps retain the image of a traditional business, with a professional office address, without the expense of renting an office in the business district. Virtual office users have the benefit of being able to flexibly match expenses with incomes increasing or decreasing the services as their revenue fluctuates.

Virtual offices can help reduce overhead while maintaining a high level of professionalism. They provide you with both communication services and physical space services, based on your need and determined by you.

What is included?
Generally, a virtual provider offers a business address and mail handling services, at the least. At the most, programs will include physical offices, dedicated phone lines with receptionist service, and meeting spaces. Virtual office services offer a variety of packages that include some or all of these amenities. Some services allow you to customize a package to suit your particular needs. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is the fourth in our series focusing on providing information on the various types of office space available, from business parks to hot desking and project space, business incubators, conventional office accommodation to shared co-working options.

For a personalized office without purchasing an office building or committing to a long term lease, consider a Managed Office Space.

Perhaps you’ve seen those signs in the business district Leasing: will build to suit. Those signs are symbolic of the benefits of a managed office space. Managed offices are not cookie-cutter offices. A managed office space can be built to suit, can be designed to meet the specific needs of your business.

Aren’t Managed Offices the same as Serviced Offices?

Like serviced offices, managed offices are typically rented fully furnished and equipped for immediate occupation. Also like a serviced office, a managed office space is rented on pay as you go type flexible terms. Unlike a serviced office, managed offices are usually not located in the uptown glass tower high rise office structure. They are generally located in smaller buildings and in buildings with more personality.

There are two key differences between a serviced office and a managed office: location and branding and clerical services.

Branding

Managed offices are not attached to the brand of the office building they are open to your own branding. A managed office is tailored to your specifications, with your branding and your workspace requirements. Frequently managed office providers will handling the entire office set-up for you. Some of the processes handled by the provider are decorating and design requirements; tailoring the space to your needs; procuring of furniture, IT, communications systems; managing the IT and communications maintenance; and, if needed, locating the ideal building and negotiating the lease for the space. Ideally, the managed office provider finds and creates for you the exact vision you have for your business. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is the third in our series focusing on providing information on the various types of office space available, from business parks to hot desking, business incubators, conventional office accommodation to shared co-working options.

Project/Team Space

Creating a dedicated place in your office space for teams to work on projects is one of the most overlooked yet most beneficial features of a work place. Especially for a business where collaboration is expected and team work is the status quo.

Dedicated Project Workspace

Having a dedicated space, means that project teams can begin their meetings quickly, as the space not only contains the work remnants of their last meeting, but also creates a mindset of lets do this .

Ideally this team project work space is dedicated to the specific project, and team members can leave their work product lying around in that space between meetings.

For example, Google Ventures calls their project space the War room. It has nearly floor to ceiling whiteboards, flexible and moveable furnishings, so the room can be set up with couches, with tables if needed, with roundtable type chair groupings whatever the need, the room can be manipulated to meet that need. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is the second in our series focusing on providing information on the various types of office space available, from business parks to hot desking, conventional office accommodation to shared coworking options.

What is a startup?

Before discussing the qualities of a startup space or incubator, it is worth determining exactly what a startup is.

Theoretically, any new business whose market is not defined by location could be considered a startup. (For example, a newly opened restaurant is indeed a small business, but, because the market is location based, it is not a startup.)

In terms of use in today’s economy, a startup is a small business, usually technology oriented; startups generally provide service to a worldwide market. Tech startups are not confined by location or operating hours only by how many consumers or clients they can reach.

Incubators

In the non business world, an incubator is a warm safe place for a baby or a baby chick to get a nice healthy start to life. In the business world, an incubator is much the same. Incubators provide services that help startups get through those trials faced by new businesses.

Services

Some of the services provided by incubators are:

• Legal: things like proprietary guidelines, creating bylaws or business plans, and navigating the regulations of your industry.
• Business management: basic accounting services, business organization tips, company setup, and help with building and framing the identity of your startup.
• Marketing: market research and networking.
• Funding: access to angel investors or venture capitalists and help in locating other sources of funding for your startup.
• Networking: introduction to others in your industry, networking with mentors, investors, and industry specialists.
• Site services: an office or team workspace, access to high-speed internet, copying and faxing, and other clerical or administrative services. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is the first in our series focusing on providing information on the various types of office space available, from business parks to hot desking, conventional office accommodation to shared coworking options.

Business centers and business parks are locations with several businesses grouped together, like a shopping center, but for commercial and office based businesses. The typical business park is a development of land and buildings set aside exclusively for the use of offices of all sizes and designs.

Business Parks in the Suburbs

Business parks are found in cities, but are more frequently located in suburban areas. Developers build a variety of sizes and designs of office spaces in one location. Available spaces will vary from a single occupancy 400 square foot office space to a 50,000 square foot warehouse space, all on one site. Occasionally, within the business park, you’ll find a larger building with several offices these are frequently owned or managed by a single entity. Owners of the larger building typically rent the spaces to small businesses as conventional, serviced, or virtual offices.

A business park is in stark contrast with the big city high rise type business locations. Business parks are often designed to resemble a university campus or suburban neighborhood. There are one or two story buildings, instead of twenty story skyscrapers; there are green spaces; there may be fountains or park benches in the surrounding areas. These business parks are ideal locations for service or retail based businesses that need a location for customers to visit.

Some business parks become so large and welcoming to businesses that they begin to resemble a small town. As the success of businesses located at a specific park grows, more and more businesses choose to locate there. From that point it may seem inevitable that neighborhoods and communities begin to sprout up in the area.

The Appeal of Business Parks

For many companies, cost effectiveness proves to be the drawing feature to a business park space. The spaces are usually more affordable than commercial or retail spaces in other locations. Often a group of similarly based businesses, such as medical specialists, will locate in a business park creating a network of services that appeal to consumers.

Typically, the companies located in a business park will be diverse, varying from service based industries, such as computer repair, for example, to investment firms that are closed to the public. The diversity of the business park is limited only by the amenities offered by the developers. Business parks can help create a concentrated, affordable non-industrial office district and contribute to the communities in which they are constructed.

For information on business centre and office accommodation opportunities across the US click here.