In a commercial office market still posting high vacancy rates, executive offices leader Regus recently opened its 15th full-service business center in the Greater Phoenix area at Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd. and Scottsdale Road. This is up from eight centers last year, and on the way to 20 by the end of 2013. Demand is coming from Fortune 500 companies down to start-ups, according to Phoenix market director Greg Waddington. “If they have a small footprint in a city,” Waddington explains of Fortune 500 companies, “rather than committing to a long-term office solution and significant capital expense to set the office up with furniture and build-out, they can lower their risk in securing office space.”
Able to accommodate a variety of shapes of office space for individual professionals up to 20 people, the business centers are usually 14,000 to 15,000 square feet and include 3,000 square feet of common area that offers meeting rooms, a business lounge and stocked kitchen area, and reception area. Regus’s Businessworld membership provides access to the business center for those who don’t need actual office space, “replacing the need for the mobile worker to work with his laptop on his knees at the local coffee shop,” says Waddington, noting that most workers today have some level of mobility in their job. Phoenix is currently one of the highest-growth areas of the country for Regus.
