All Over Albany

Community office space at 747 Madison

The recognizable pink building.

Updated with contact info.

We've talked a bit in the past about the push for coworking spaces in the Capital Region.

Well, yesterday we got a look at a space in Albany that points in that direction. It stops short of the ultra-flexible, hive-like coworking concept, but it's more flexible than a typical office rental.

The space is in the 747 Madison building in Albany. We met up with property manager Stephanie Means for a tour.

Means says the space, about 3,500 square feet, has been empty for about a year. The company that owns the property figured it would be difficult to rent out such a large space right now because of the economy. So they decided to try something different.

Here's the deal:
+ The space includes nine separate offices, along with a waiting area, conference room, bathrooms and kitchenette.
+ The offices are available for rent by the month -- so if you wanted an office for just a single month, that would be fine.
+ Offices come with use of all the common spaces, all utilities, wireless internet, furniture, weekly cleaning, parking and on-site property management.
+ 24 hour access (the building is locked at night)
+ The rent is $550/month for a small office (probably big enough for no more than one person) and $700/month for a large office (probably big enough for two people).

"Our goal was to have a space where people come in, plug in, put their files in and would be ready to work," Means says.

A quick photo tour:

Waiting area

Conference room

Smaller office

Larger office

Kitchenette

Means says they envision renting the offices to start-ups, people who work from home but need a place to see clients, seasonal operations, or businesses that just need temporary space. Offices can be split by two or more "roommates." She says they've already rented two of the offices, to a meditation studio.

There's nothing radical about this "community office suite" -- businesses share office space all the time. And it doesn't exactly fill the need for coworking space. But we like the fact that people are thinking a little differently about this sort of situation. It's hard to make a start-up or small business work (understatement), so anything that could smooth the way is a good thing.

Update: A few people have asked about contact info -- here's Stephanie's email address:

uapm |at| nycap.rr.com