So what is a virtual office?

Add comment November 29th, 2007

My curiosity was piqued when I heard about the Perryville Virtual Office Suites at A Perryville Place, 6957 Olde Creek Road in Rockford.  So when I got an invitation to an open house there, I decided to go and see for myself.

It turns out that these are offices that are available for business people on a just-in-time basis — as-needed — without requiring a longterm fulltime commitment.

A virtual office (or even a cubicle) can be leased by the hour, the day, the week, the month, or even for six months or a year at a time.   Say you have a home based company but you need a more businesslike setting in which to meet clients.  Or you work in Madison and you want to meet halfway to collaborate on a business project with someone from Barrington.  Or you’re a salesperson on the road and you just need a “touchdown area” with desk, phone and wi-fi for a couple of hours so you can regroup.

Those are a few of the types of users the virtual offices are targeting.   The “touchdown areas” can be leased by the hour, for $15 per hour.  Meeting rooms start at $40 per hour.  Private office spaces with desk, chairs, mail service and phone service — including a receptionist to answer your phone number with your business name — can be leased in 20-hour-a-month or 40-hour-a-month packages. 

For businesses that want a six-month-long or year-long lease to their own office with a lock there are turnkey executive packages that include furniture,  telephone and Internet service, and utilities. 

Other business services like typing, catering and videoconferencing also are available.  The various-sized suites, along with lobby areas, conference rooms and restrooms, take up the entire third floor of A Perryville Place,  about 20,000 square feet.

The Perryville Virtual Office Suites are owned by a limited liability company, some of whose partners are members of Summit Real Estate Development, which owns the entire A Perryville Place mixed use complex.

The virtual office suites opened for business in October. So far, nine executive packages have been leased — along with about a dozen various combinations of mail, phone, 20-hour and 40-hour packages —  said Lynn Martz, center manager.