Luxury offices at your service<\/p>\n
LUXURY serviced-office suites may seem irrelevant in these difficult economic times but there are flourishing niche businesses keen to make a statement about themselves by taking space with more than a touch of grandeur.<\/p>\n
Many business centres are either too branded, which crowds out the occupier’s identity, or too basic, providing no sense of style or prestige.<\/p>\n
Restored period buildings are the ideal backdrop for occupiers who want to project an upmarket image.<\/p>\n
“Self-reward is another factor,” says Neil Hinwood, sales and marketing director of Argyll Business Centres. “People who run successful companies like to work in a quality environment with tasteful surroundings.”<\/p>\n
Argyll operates five centres in prime addresses – Mayfair, St James’s and Belgravia. The centres are run on the lines of a luxury townhouse hotel, with an accent on hospitality, personal service and concierge-type care.<\/p>\n
In-house staff have been poached from deluxe hotels such as Claridges and Cliveden.<\/p>\n
“Location, location, specification, is our motto,” says Hinwood.<\/p>\n
All the buildings are listed and have top-notch interiors. The design combines traditional elegance and contemporary chic – lots of period detail, modern art and high-tech telecoms. Most occupiers are wellfunded, boutique businesses, mainly financial-services companies – from hedge funds to headhunters.<\/p>\n
At three centres, occupancy is running at 90 per cent, and has been throughout the economic downturn, allowing Argyll to buck the trend in the sector and maintain rates.<\/p>\n
Workstat ions cost from 750 to 1,500 per month, depending on the space occupied.<\/p>\n
Being character buildings, the converted office suites are highly individual, and some occupiers take more space than they need because they are seduced by the room.<\/p>\n
Most licences are for six to 12 months, but renewals are common.<\/p>\n
Companies typically employ between four and eight people.<\/p>\n
“We are on the acquisition trail, but finding the right building is difficult because of our strict criteria,” says Hinwood.<\/p>\n
One Grosvenor Crescent, Belgravia, is a typical location – a prestige corner building in an area renowned for embassies but lacking classy office accommodation. The 23,000sq ft building has been meticulously restored and turned into 44 offices (164 workstations).<\/p>\n
All the backup services are available, plus touches like luxury cloakrooms and fully equipped kitchens (even Fortnum and Mason teas). A 20-person boardroom, ideal for product launches and presentations, is for hire at 80 an hour.<\/p>\n
Three packages are on offer: the Argyll Office (fully-furnished and equipped space with backup services), Argyll Access (a “virtual” office with voice and data communications for mobile businessmen) and Argyll Meeting (boardrooms, conferencing, IT and secretarial support when needed). Argyll Access costs 225 a month.<\/p>\n
Not all boutique business centres are heritage buildings in the West End or City. Former Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason is the developer behind a new designer centre in Clerkenwell.<\/p>\n
Instead of the usual sterile, corporate-looking offices where staff are desperate to leave at the end of the day, Mason envisaged laid- back, funky spaces bristling with gizmos, but in a clubby environment with an accent on personal service: a place for a massage as well as a meeting.<\/p>\n
Called Britannia Row2, it is a converted listed Victorian factory with 25,000sq ft of space spread over four floors plus a rotunda at the top.<\/p>\n
A dramatic circular staircase cuts through to the basement – now a retreat area with latte bar and beauty treatment rooms.<\/p>\n
The offices above provide flexible space in units up to 3,000sq ft.<\/p>\n
Lshaped workstations have sandblasted glass and aluminium partitions for privacy, and hotdesks in open-plan areas. Office suites have mini-bars.<\/p>\n
Short-term licences to long-term leases are available.<\/p>\n
Occupancy is high, with most space taken by creative companies.<\/p>\n
Parallel Business Centres is trying to entice occupiers out of London to leafy Surrey, from where the occasional reverse-commute into the capital will be easier and even enjoyable.<\/p>\n
Fetcham Park is a 300-year-old listed mansion set in five acres of grounds originally laid out by Capability Brown.<\/p>\n
The property looks like an imposing French chteau. It has been painstakingly restored and includes prized murals and works of art.<\/p>\n
ON the ground floor is an impressive reception, meeting rooms and an ornate 1,000sq ft suite lavishly furnished with antiques, silk drapes and original oil paintings. The latter comes with an anteroom for a PA plus an optional interconnecting room with up to six desks. This costs 3,500 a month.<\/p>\n
Conference space costs 350 a day. Elsewhere in the building are more conventional offices, where workstations start at about 600 a month. All offices have views of the landscaped grounds.<\/p>\n
The location appeals to small companies that want quick access to both Gatwick and Heathrow, says Parallel’s Sandra Young. Near Leatherhead, just off the M25, the centre has one parking space for each workstation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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