A ribbon-cutting last week in Vancouver didn't just mark the launch of one new business – it marked a new effort to help many small business owners throughout Clark County get off the ground.
Opening in the 50,000 square-foot former home of the Red Lion Hotel chain at 4001 Main St., Executive Center Northwest will offer members access to conference space, training facilities and a full-service document center. The result of a collaboration between CEO Mark Christensen, chief operating officer and president Bill Bridgeman and building owner Sheldon Harmon, the facility also plans to provide a network of service professionals and a series of professional development workshops.
"It's a business space that helps an entrepreneur accelerate and grow," Christensen said. "The goal is to provide a value-added service to the entrepreneur or even the small business that may be established but want to connect with the network that we're creating and also take advantage of some of the workshops."
Christensen's own experience as president and CEO at Vancouver-based training and coaching firm Learning Point, Inc. has helped him identify some of those needs. Christensen says he knows what it's like to have too many employees coming over to his house everyday to work, not to mention the other resources a small business needs, besides space.
"We've been in business ourselves," he said. "Finding and sourcing the right people has always been a challenge, so when the opportunity came to take advantage of this space we did that."
That opportunity came when Harmon lost one of his tenants – a brokerage firm that occupied most of the building's space. In one month, Harmon says, the building went from 150 occupants to three.
Now home to Executive Center Northwest's base of operations, the building houses about 10 firms, including a custom-designed purse maker, a realtor and a construction consulting firm. Christensen said there are about eight to 10 office spaces still available for lease at the facility.
Though tenants at the building are automatically offered membership, any business can take advantage of Executive Center Northwest's services for a flat fee of $99 a month. A premium rate of $149 also provides access to additional services, an increased discount with certain service providers and credits that can be used for time in the conference spaces and meeting rooms, to pay for workshops organized by the center or for document preparation at the business center.
"[Clients] have their options," Christensen said. "They can lease space and not take advantage of Executive Center Northwest services or they can be a member without leasing space in the building."
In fact, with Executive Center Northwest's focus on connecting emerging businesses with professionals offering legal services, marketing consulting, accounting or other services, Christensen says that most members will not be full-time tenants of the building on Main Street.
Instead, the bulk of their efforts will be in creating a community of service providers through the Christensen, Bridgeman and Harmon's existing professional networks as well as through business events they've organized. According to Christensen, members will not be required to use the providers recommended by the network, though they will receive discounted rates, typically from 15 and 20 percent, if they do so.
"We want to maintain a little bit of neutrality there, but we want to provide our members recommendations they can trust," Christensen said.
Though the firm plans to tap professionals in Portland as recommended service providers available to clients, Executive Center Northwest has not made any attempt to develop membership across the Columbia River, says Christensen. Instead, the facility has set its sights on businesses in Clark and nearby Cowlitz counties as the target market for its services.
In some ways, the center is part of a common "co-working" trend emerging in artistic and tech start-up hot-spots across the U.S. These facilities are often flexibly-priced workspaces with shared equipment available on a mostly short-term basis – with examples including Portland's Souk and Los Angeles' BlankSpaces.
Sometimes these facilities offer established home-based businesses a location for more professional client and vendor meetings. "That office environment allows them to be a physical presence," said Eric Fuller, a commercial real estate broker in Vancouver.
Fuller, who hadn't yet visited Executive Center Northwest, said any idea that takes cost constraints into consideration could be attractive for small businesses trying to get traction in a tough economy.
"Anytime small businesses can take advantage of getting a facility or professional services at the least cost they would look at that option," he said.
