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Working Alone, Together
Frances Roberts for The New York Times
MINI OFFICES Joe
Raby, left, and Cheni Yerushalmi, the founders and managing partners at
Sunshine Realty Management, with Amadeus, a 15-year-old Pomeranian, at
419 Lafayette Street, their company's second site. Current clients
include commodity brokers and a booker for rock performers.
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Published: December 26, 2004
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(Page 2 of 2) "People
in closed offices didn't have a lot of interaction," Mr. Yerushalmi
said. "Not to mention we didn't have that much flexibility in closed
offices, and companies tended to expand and shrink based on their
monthly needs." At Lafayette Street, enclosed offices have been
phased out and replaced by cubicles housing one to four people ranging
from $295 to $625. According to Mr. Raby and Mr. Yerushalmi, the
smaller work spaces increase their per-square-foot profitability. Nicolás
Fernández runs a company that outsources office furniture design to
architects in South America from a perch in Sunshine's Lafayette Street
office. He far prefers it to working at home. "I need to get out," he
said. "That was my main draw." It is also less expensive and
more comfortable than subletting extra space from another firm. "This
was cheaper, and I didn't want to be stuck in a stuffy lawyer's office
anyway," he said. Having looked at other companies, where rents
typically begin at $600 and tenants pay extra for things like phone and
Internet lines, faxes and copies, he said, "This was 10 times better." Part of Mr. Raby and Mr. Yerushalmi's understanding of their clients' needs comes from their own experiences as entrepreneurs. Mr.
Raby, who was born in Baghdad, and Mr. Yerushalmi, who was born in Tel
Aviv, became friends when they were 11 and living in Great Neck, N.Y.
Mr. Raby got into finance, working for companies like Ernst & Young
and Prudential Securities, eventually becoming a senior vice president
at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Yerushalmi went into business for himself with
an Internet start-up during late 90's that included Mr. Raby as an
accountant and programmer. Finding real estate for their fledgling
company and sourcing phone lines, copiers and Internet connections
consumed time and money. "I knew if we were having trouble with it, we
were not the only ones," Mr. Yerushalmi said. They have found
that a diverse client base not only makes the office interesting (they
had a tenant who was an astrologer and did their charts), but it helps
with resource sharing. Their computer systems technician is a tenant,
as is their phone system administrator, Internet service provider,
graphic designer and Web site designer, as well as a contractor who
helped with the renovations at Lafayette Street. For many small businesses, moving into an office center is the only way to get a proper office in Manhattan. David
Manning, a managing partner of LIVEstyle Entertainment, an
entertainment marketing and production company, said that if his
company's five employees were not at Sunshine, they would be renting an
apartment. They just moved into the Lafayette Street space after being
at 21st Street since April. Sunshine "allows us to present
ourselves as bigger than we are," Mr. Manning said, adding, "Things
like putting together group health plans, that's huge." It
allows him to grow, but only to a point. When LIVEstyle gets too big,
the work space will not be cost effective and Mr. Manning will have to
find space of his own. And when that happens, Mr. Yerushalmi said, "we can always refer them to one of our tenants that is a commercial broker."
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