A term few of us heard of thirty years ago is “flex space.” Back in the old days, and employee came to work, worked out of their cubicle for the day, went home at the end of the day and did the same thing day after day after day.
That shouldn’t be the case in 2018! Companies have found that on any given day approximately 50% of their workspace is unused. Employees are out in the field researching or meeting customers, or they are working from home, so less space in the office building is actually needed as work space.
Enter the concept of flex space! Flex space is space which meets many different needs and people, depending on the fluctuating circumstances. Several people from several different companies may use the same cubicle/work station. They would sign up at the beginning of the week for a certain slot of time, or sign up for certain days during the month, and each day will find new people using the same flex space. The concept also refers to a commercial building which can be used for different activities. Some flex buildings only have partitions so that new cubicles can be added or subtracted, so the warehouse can be enlarged or made smaller . . . on any given day a flex building might have an ever-changing warehouse/retail space/office space, depending on the needs for the day.
If you are an employee looking for flex space, you obviously have to look at cost and availability. If you are an employer looking for a commercial property for lease to convert into flex space, your criteria is a bit more complicated. To properly gain the full benefits of flex space, you are going to want a piece of commercial/industrial property which can be altered and adjusted easily. You’ll want flexible property, property which can be converted in a matter of minutes without actually changing the structure of the building.
Those types of buildings are available but it will require some creativity on the part of the property manager and it will require some doggedness on your part to find it.
Are you new to this concept and still a bit confused what it all looks like. Go take an online tour of a new business park in Fort Worth, Texas, Box Office Warehouse Suites. It is the first, and only, business park in Fort Worth made entirely from shipping containers . . . flexible, affordable, highly-adaptable shipping containers! In that one business park you will find retail properties, shop space for rent, garages, warehouses, office space, and space used as flex space. It turns out shipping containers are the perfect building medium for flex space. They are easy to convert into different uses, they are easily movable, and they are inexpensive. Toss in the fact that they are eco-friendly and funky, and it is no surprise that more and more shipping containers are being used for commercial and industrial property.
Check it out . . . Box Office Warehouse Suites . . . see for yourself what flex space looks like in the practical world of business.
