If you’ve been searching for downtown office space for rent, then it’s helpful to know what to expect. Read further.
When looking for an office space for your business, countless different questions and factors come to mind. Location is central, of course – if you’re planning to receive clients or hire more people, then picking out an office space that makes commute easy and offers a large amount of parking is important.
The value of the address itself is also something to consider. Where your business is located can give clients an immediate first impression and create positive expectations. As such, it’s important to set your standards.
Set Your Standards
What do you need in an office space? What are you looking for? Downtown Los Angeles offers countless different rentable office spaces and coworking spaces for startups, established businesses, and freelancers alike. But every team or individual has their own set of minimum requirements for an office space.
Some amenities are a matter of course – great Internet connection, lots of bandwidth, good parking, disability accommodations, and a floor plan to fit your team.
But there are other things to consider as well. Restaurants and dining options in the area. Surrounding businesses. Optional amenities, including a gym in the office building, or a good bar in the lobby.
Is the space fully furnished? Will there be other businesses, and how many other tenants should you generally expect to be working with on a day-to-day basis? Are there private meeting rooms? Is the sound proofing good enough?
Create your list of standards before looking for a space. As you go through your options, you can revisit that list and change your priorities depending on what’s available, until you reach the right compromise, or find the office space of your dreams.
Consider a Coworking Space
Renting an office space for your business usually leaves you with two options – shouldering the higher cost of renting out a floor or office entirely for yourself and your coworkers or distributing that cost across other tenants in the form of a coworking subscription.
Coworking spaces are generally more affordable than sole offices and offer different terms. A commercial landlord will generally want to see a contract requiring a six-month commitment to one space, as well as a hefty security deposit. A coworking space may often allow you to pay on a month-to-month basis with no commitment and no collateral.
Coworking spaces mean you will be working alongside other professionals in your field. However, this should not be seen as a negative. Coworking spaces offer private rooms by design, to allow teams to work in peace and quiet, and avoid company details and confidential information to be unwillingly distributed around the office. However, the camaraderie of a coworking space allows of productive cooperation, and unexpected collaborations and partnerships.
Furthermore, coworking spaces help you draw out even greater things from your employees. They tend to boost morale and improve productivity in individuals, over a regular office space.
If your team is entirely remote, then a coworking space is the ideal compromise for coworkers who function better working with others in-person, or to act as a central, physical hub for your digital team, as well as a way for you to provide a physical address to potential clients, as well as a crucial meeting space to discuss project details and present prospects.
What to Look for In a Downtown Office Space
What can you expect from an office space in downtown Los Angeles? For one, you can expect to benefit from the perks of working and commuting in DTLA – that means culture, it means countless culinary experiences, it means never running out of things to do during happy hour.
But on a professional note, a good coworking space in downtown Los Angeles offers a world-class office experience at an affordable cost, even to fresh startup teams looking for a physical location to collaborate and work together. Some of the things you can expect to see include the following below.
A Welcoming Community
Coworking spaces compete on niches and their ability to invoke a sense of community and camaraderie among tenants. Every coworking space is its own professional ecosystem, and that can be a great thing if your team is a good fit. Thankfully, with the number of coworking spaces around, you are likely to find the right fit for you.
A welcoming community is not only a boon for morale, but it also presents natural networking opportunities, allowing you to build professional ties with freelancers and contractors, as well as potential partner companies, without needing to go out of your way to do the legwork of finding them online, or in industry get-togethers.
Private Meeting Rooms
While collaboration is a great tool, especially for young businesses, there are still plenty of times throughout the day when you need to hunker down without distractions – alone or as a team – and get to work.
A good coworking space will provide you with plenty of private rooms for meetings, brainstorming, development, or planning without interruptions and distractions.
Natural Light
We’ve mentioned it before, but the perks of good natural light – as well as other natural elements in an office environment, including plants and wooden furniture – can greatly affect morale and improve productivity in your coworkers.
A good view helps, too. Broadening your horizon in a literal sense helps you come up with fresh and better ideas, and can inspire optimism. It’s also just plain pretty to look at.
Constant Availability
Last but not least, a good coworking space or office environment will be there when you need it – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Sometimes, it’s just about hitting that late night shift to come up with a solution to a critical issue that could cost you a client. At other times, it’s to communicate and present a product to clients halfway around the world available at a completely different time zone. Good availability and unlimited office hours also mean you can pick and choose to come in after peak hours, and benefit from more floor space – without an uptick in cost.
Even something as simple as window placement or ceiling design can have a significant impact on an office space’s viability for your company. Finding the right office space in downtown Los Angeles isn’t as tough as finding a needle in a haystack but be prepared to make a lot of calls and plan a lot of visits. And pick carefully – the right office environment can make or break your team’s morale and productivity.