Breather is opening five new locations in L.A.
LOS ANGELES—Co-working-style office spaces are evolving to meet tenant demands. Breather is a “network of individual meeting rooms and workspaces,” and it is opening up five new shops in Los Angeles, in Downtown, Hollywood, West Hollywood and Culver City. The office solution is another brand of alternative office spaces for the changing office environment, and illustrates the vast demand for different types of spaces. To find out how Breather is competing in the market and why it has pegged Los Angeles for this new growth, we sat down with Peter Sellick, head of real estate at Breather, for an exclusive interview. Here, we dig into the demand for this type of space, why L.A. is a key growth market and how they are competing with other brands.
GlobeSt.com: Why have you targeted L.A. for this expansion?
Peter Sellick: When we first launched in Los Angeles we were focused on neighborhoods that catered to growing startups in the tech and creative sectors – mainly Santa Monica and Venice Beach. We're beginning to see the demand for flexible office and meeting room space in more traditional industries and from larger, more established corporations. As a result, we've been expanding into areas like DTLA here and in the central business districts across our nine other markets.
GlobeSt.com: What is demand like for these types of workspaces?
Sellick: Demand is high. Many startups and early stage companies can't predict their real estate needs years in advance so Breather provides a simple spillover space solution, flexible as and when they need it. For larger companies, Breather is really an all-around space solution when meeting and conference rooms can be hard to come by. With the workforce changing, our shift to more of a mobile mindset, we see tremendous opportunities for Breather to grow.
GlobeSt.com: We are seeing a lot more co-working-type spaces. How are you competing with other brands?
Sellick: First off, it is important to make the distinction that Breather is not a co-working space. We are a distributed network of individual meeting rooms and workspaces that are used by companies and individuals alike. Breather offers dedicated space for you or your team along with the necessities of the modern workplace—high speed Internet, spacious lounge areas and conference room tables, white boards, and presentation screens. What sets us apart from other meeting room providers is our expertise in the areas of design and construction. Because we lease our spaces directly from building owners, we are able to achieve a fresh, modern aesthetic that is consistent across our entire network.
GlobeSt.com: Where else are you focusing your expansion efforts?
Sellick: While we certainly will be looking to increase density in those tech and creative neighborhoods we see ourselves as part of the resurgence of DTLA and will be growing in the areas that are attractive to larger, multi-national companies as well. Demand from the film and television industry for production space has been high, so we've begun looking for additional locations in Hollywood and West Hollywood that can accommodate this sort of use. We've had a great response from top landlords here in LA and in each of our markets that really see the value we provide. When we lease space in a building, not only do we generate rent for a landlord, but we also provide them with a new meeting room amenity that they can now offer to tenants.
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Kelsi Maree Borland
