When completed, the centers--which will provide both space and business support services for full-time and virtual office workers--will generate $50 million in revenue a year, according to company officials. The first 20,000-sf business center is slated to open in April at the Worldgate Plaza IV building in Herndon, VA and will accommodate up to 500 people. The fully wired center will provide furnished and staffed offices for one to 20 people. Two more centers are scheduled to open in the Washington area this fall.

"These facilities are designed to meet the market of corporate America, which is outsourcing its office base," explains Wiatrowski, who says the centers will capitalize on the natural trade routes that stretch between Washington, DC, and Boston and between the United States and the United Kingdom. The centers will provide full business services in addition to desk space. "They are set up so you can walk in, sit down and work, and if you need someone to type a document or put together a PowerPoint presentation, there is someone there to do that ... they will provide from A to Z a complete business support service, like it's your own office."

Gainsborough USA is part of the UK-based Gainsborough Group Plc, which currently runs five business centers in London and plans to have more than 70 centers worldwide by 2004. "The company's UK expansion plans are progressing well and moving across the Atlantic seemed to be the natural next step," says Simon Harding, managing director of Gainsborough Group.