Office building offers high class space for small companies and start up businesses 

By JIM HART
Staff Reporter

For the style of business of many West Linn and Lake Oswego home-based business owners, the Willamette Executive Offices is a perfect match. By combining the prestige of an address in the Willamette 205 Corporate Center with the class of a full-time receptionist, furnished office, conference

rooms, high-speed Internet, telephone system and copy center, start-up or small businesses can hit the ground running. That’s why Rhonda Coakley, regional sales and marketing director for the Oregon branches of Advantage Office Suites, left her 15-year position in telecommunications to help startups get on their feet. In generic terms, the office suites business is called an incubator. But the new one in West Linn is high class, with 31 offices filling the second floor of the largest building in the corporate center, overlooking historic Willamette and the Willamette River. Choices among the 31 offices for small business owners include office space ranging in area from 104 to 295 square feet, with options of a suite of two or three connected rooms. The executive offices occupy the second floor of the three story building, with easy walk-in access from the north side of the building. There are many advantages for home-based or startup businesses, including that the office suites company can provide everything most businesses would need, including a full-time receptionist.
“We help nurture businesses by providing the infrastructure for them,” Coakley said. “They don’t have to worry about getting the Internet set up or getting a phone vendor to install phones. We can keep the cost down because we have it all in place to support them.”

New executive office suite business owners can literally walk into their new office(s) and immediately sit down to their desk or scan copies, make phone calls, plug in their computer and log onto a high-speed Internet connection or plan a meeting in a state-of-the-art conference room.  Business begins the first day, with low startup costs. In fact, the suites receptionist will greet each company’s clients and make them comfortable in the waiting room until the business owner is ready to greet the client.

Coakley says she knows that home-based business owners want to keep costs down. “But who wants to meet clients in their dining room?” she said.

Short-term leases are available, according to Coakley, which is especially helpful for startups that will be expanding. The company also offers virtual offices, which includes the temporary use of day-office space, conference rooms, business address, receptionist, mail sorting and package acceptance as well as networking with other businesses.

“Let our receptionists answer and forward your calls while you run your business from home,” Coakley says about virtual office services. “Use our business address to receive your mail and our state-of-the-art conference rooms and day offices to meet your clients.”

Advantage Office Suites offers an alternative to the long-term (years) leases in some office buildings. Coakley says short-term (months) leases are acceptable with her firm. Working from an executive office in a professional building not only adds prestige to a business, but also it gives the business owner the ability to expand when necessary and to enjoy networking and referrals from other similar-size businesses in the same building. Advantage Office Suites, headquartered since 2003 in Scottsdale, Ariz., has a number of office complexes in Arizona. West Linn’s addition to the company is the second group of offices in Oregon. Oregon’s headquarters since 2006 is located at 5320 SW Macadam Ave. By year’s end, Coakley says she will assist the company to open two more groups of executive office suites in Oregon.  Advantage Office Suites is located in the Willamette 205 Corporate Center, 1800 Blankenship Road, Suite 200. For more information, call 503-655-6560 or visit the Web site at www.advantageofficesuites.com