Latitude One targets small business with small space

LATITUDE ONE HOSTS 10-HOUR BLOOD DRIVE ON FEB. 9TH

Latitude One, in Miami’s Brickell Avenue neighborhood, is targeting small business and international executives with furnished suites as small as 100 square feet and a la carte services. The 230,000-square-foot Latitude One, at 175 S. Seventh St., has about 10,000 square feet reserved for its business centers.

Latitude One’s business center space will be located on two floors and include 38 executive office suites, ranging from 100 to 200 square feet, as well as four conference rooms, a receptionist and other a la carte services.

The additional cost for the virtual package - use of conference room, reception and other common areas, but no physical office space – ranges from $75 to $595 a month. Latitude One did not provide specifics on pricing for the office space. Karen Fish-Will, president of Peabody Real Estate, LLC and vice president of Peabody Properties Miami, manages Latitude One. She hired Right Space Management, which specializes in concierge business services, to lease and manage the business centers. Fish-Will said construction has begun and should be completed in the first quarter of next year. If entirely leased, Latitude One will be at 90 percent occupancy.

Latitude One was designed by Arquitectonica, developed by Edward A. Fish Associates and built by family-owned Suffolk Construction. The building, which was finished two years ago, is about 80 percent leased, with law firms, investment companies and spa medical companies making up the bulk of tenants.

The model is not new, with companies such as Regis and Intelligent Office offering the same services all over the world, including in the same market that Latitude One is targeting. The competitive overlap could pose a problem for Latitude One’s marketing efforts, said Noel Steinfeld, CB Richard Ellis' VP of brokerage services. She said the work is very time intensive. She said Latitude One is a nice building at a good location, but it’s off Brickell Avenue. “That address says absolutely nothing,” Steinfeld said. “Tenants make decisions all the time based on address, if they care anything about image.”

Fish-Will said Latitude One’s space will be able to compete because being within the vicinity of Brickell Avenue can still be leveraged for marketing purposes by tenants, and the pricing will be better than what is available on Brickell Avenue.

Steinfeld also said that Latitude One will have a harder time breaking into the niche because companies such as Regis have existing relationships with brokerages such as CBRE and potential users.

“If [General Motors] wants to open a little satellite office, they already think of Regis,” Steinfeld said.

She added that Latitude One could differentiate itself from its bigger rivals with discount pricing and quality space and service.

Fish-Will doesn’t see Regis and Office Intelligence as direct competitors because Latitude One will be targeting clients with demand for spaces smaller than what is commonly available through the larger rivals.

By: 2009-12-11

Press Contact: Peabody Properties, Inc. Tel: 781-794-1000