Office Nomads Settle Down On Capitol Hill

CHS had the news last night, and then Metblogs posted before us, too, so to make up for our tardiness, we visited the Office Nomads site, chatted with cofounder Jacob, and took pictures. They just signed a 3-year lease the beginning of this month, and are in full prep-mode before their opening on November 1. (Open House 6pm-9pm.)

The new Office Nomads offices are located in the old Heath Printers building on Boylston, the block west of the SCCC parking garage on Pine -- they have the 5,000+ square feet upstairs to work with. The idea is for rootless freelancers, contract workers, and small biz owners to have a happy office environment with all the accoutrements: desk, T1 network, printer/faxer/copier, a Bunn coffeemaker, and the company of others. (It's bring-your-own-laptop.) There's going to be a full kitchen, and there's also a shower for sweaty bicyclists or gym-goers. "Anybody who's not invited to apply?" we asked. "Well, it's an open space, so counselors and massage therapists wouldn't find it too useful," said Jacob.

"Permanent desks" go for $475/month, and include the ability to reserve your choice of three conference rooms. Drop-in people can rent a desk for the day for $20. But they can't reserve conference rooms! That's for Perma-People! Jacob said they were kicking around a move-in special, maybe sign up for 2008 and get the rest of 2007 free. Perma-People also get 24x7 access, via a key card; daily drop-ins must leave when the office "closes" at 6pm.

"Some people are happy with their home office," said Jacob, "and some are fine with working in a coffeeshop. A coffeeshop is cheaper than we would be. But we think there are people who'd like this, a place to go to work and get to know other professionals. That's what makes us different from ActivSpace." (They've already talked with Biznik about hosting events.) He estimates they have room for 35-40 desks -- they're starting with 20. From our look around, the space is broken up enough that it won't look like more than 7 or 8 people are sharing a given area.

We were curious about how it all worked because we used to work out of the Victrola, and at one point we'd talked with a few other regulars about just this kind of thing. But we knew we didn't want to get into the business of running an office space -- Jacob hopes that keeping things "human" will mean he won't need to keep track of printer and fax usage, and itemize billing. That $475/month is supposed to be a flat fee. "Individuality without isolation," is the motto. Sounds like it might make interesting reality TV.