They say that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Well I don’t know about all that but I can tell you that an idle mind spells B.O.R.E.D.O.M. I have historically invested in residential and commercial real estate. Buy low, refurbish, sell high if all goes well. My latest venture, Biltmore Office Plaza, followed suit. However, after refurbishing the property, I found myself wanting to hang on to the building as the upside potential had not yet been fully reached.
Once the decision was made to hold the property, I had to determine who would manage the facility going forward. There really aren’t that many options. You either manage property yourself or you hire a management company to do it for you. Well the natural born control freak in me answered that question fairly quickly. Of course it would be me!
So began the saga of my idle mind. Management of a completely refurbished, 100% occupied building with a dedicated maintenance person takes about an hour and a half per day. I found myself wandering the property everyday looking for things to occupy my time and in the process began to irritate the tenants and the poor maintenance man. They began to find things for me to do so I would leave them alone. Very sad indeed.
Being of an entrepreneurial spirit, I began to explore the possibility of opening my own business on the property. New dilemma…what skills did I possess that could be parlayed into a business venture? I knew for sure that I wanted to steer clear of anything related to my past life as a CPA and accounting department head for a major oil company. Just as depression was about to set in from the realization that my only remaining marketable skill was my yen for buying, refurbishing and selling real estate, a block of space (3,000 contiguous square feet) came available.
Throughout the lease up of the building, it was evident that there was significant demand for temporary space for those who prefer not to be confined to an office 100% of the time. Prospective tenants would inquire about inexpensive, small office suites because they would only be used on a part time basis. I now had a large amount of office space available and a list of clientele that wanted small temporary office suites. Plaza Executive Suites was born!
While the concept of executive suites or business centers have been around for 30 or more years, I believe we have taken what was once affordable only to the big national companies with healthy expense accounts and made it available and affordable for the local entrepreneur. We adopted an on demand, no contract approach to office rental and business services and business has been great. Check out our website at www.PlazaExecutive.com to see our list of services and just how affordable they really are.
And my idle mind? I guess sometimes it helps to slow down for a little bit. Some wonderful ideas have been born from the idle mind. Our clients agree that Plaza Executive Suites is one of them.
Bob Alsbury / General Manager- Plaza Executive Suites