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PERIMETER BUSINESS
New workplaces are designed for a new kind of worker
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
In Buckhead, Atlanta Tech Village
is creating new "co-working" office
spaces aimed at technology and re
lated companies, and targeting tech
start-ups. A five-story, 1980s-vintage
marble-and-glass office building at
3423 Piedmont Road is now undergo
ing a $5 million renovation to create
the new workspace.
Some companies already are at
work in the partially-renovated build
ing. Once construction is complete,
the building will offer open offices
where young tech entrepreneurs can
work side by side, conference rooms,
expandable offices for growing com
panies, and places where workers can
get away to play ping-pong or table-
top shuffleboard, community manag
er Karen Houghton said during a re
cent tour for potential clients. "It will
be a very different building," said
Houghton said.
The operators of Roam and At
lanta Tech Village say their facilities
aren't traditional office buildings. For
one thing, they look more like college
dorms or classroom buildings than
high-rise cube farms. They offer com
fy couches where workers can plop
down with their laptops and places
where people can write on the walls,
if they want to. At Atlanta Tech Vil
lage, workers ride scooters through
the building's open hallways.
Jim Wade plans to move his new
insurance busi
ness specializ
ing in digital sales
from more tradi
tional Buckhead
office space into
Atlanta Tech Vil
lage after the first
of the year. He
hopes the envi
ronment will help
him attract young
er workers. "It's as much as anything
else, a recruiting tool and a place for
them to work rather than a stodgy old
office building," he said.
For small business owners, the al
ternative office facilities promise flex
ibility. Roam can handle meetings
ranging in size from two people to
200, Day said. Both Atlanta Tech Vil
lage and Roam sign their customers
to memberships, not leases.
"People today want to keep their
options open. They want to be nim
ble," Day said. "You can add employ
ees here or remove employees. It's
month to month."
That appeals to Blake Sanchez, a
27-year-old engineer who's CEO of a
two-year-old, six-employee company.
"This is our office," he said one recent
afternoon as he and his marketing di
rector Erynne Ligeski typed away on
laptops in one of Roam's booth-like
workspaces. "It's very cost-effective.
It has this flexible space."
Sanchez said he usually meets with
two or three employees at his office
at Roam while his other employees
work elsewhere. "We started out at
my apartment, when there were just
two of us," he said. "That's definitely
not a place to meet clients. [Here,] we
get a clean conference room with all
sorts of high-tech stuff."
Software subcontractor Robert
Hudson said he works at Roam's fa
cilities four days a
week because it al
lows him to con
centrate on his job.
"Instead of work
ing from home, I
work here because
my daughter
wouldn't let me
work at home," he
said.
The new fa
cilities also offer business owners a
chance to meet and exchange ideas
with like-minded folks, their own
ers say. As more people work from
home - and, according to a recent
Wall Street Journal article, a 2006 gov
ernment study found that 42.6 people
in the U.S. worked outside an office
- some are finding that distractions
such as children, dogs or housework
can get in the way of their productiv
ity.
"What we're finding is that when
you go home to work, there's a fac
tor called social isolation," Day said.
"When you collaborate, you become
more productive."
Jeff Thompson, a commercial real
estate consultant, found that get
"What we're finding is that
when you go home to work,
there's a factor called social isola
tion. When you collaborate, you
become more productive."
Peyton Day, Roam Investor
ting out of the home office helped his
work. "I'm more productive when
there are other people around," he
said. "Things at home can be disrup
tive. I get a little cabin fever."
Now he can do his job from his vir
tual office. One recent afternoon, he
was hard at work in a booth next to
the one Sanchez, the engineer, was
Phil Mosier
At left, Blake Sanchez, president and CEO of
Pyrodynamics, left, works alongside Erynne
Ligeski, marketing director for the company,
at the Roam office. Above, Jeff Thompson, a
commercial real estate consultant, said getting
out of his home office helped his work.
using as his office and just a couple of
dozen feet from the one where Mill
er was interviewing clients. And, of
course, he was just a quick walk from
Roam's in-house coffee shop.
"A lot people who walk through
think this is like a coffee bar - a Star-
bucks with meeting rooms," Day said.
"But it's so much more than that."
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