Office Space News
Orega Opens Serviced Offices in Historic Art Deco Airport Terminal
Published April 27th, 2009 by Jennifer LeClaire
What do you get when you cross a 1930s airport terminal with a serviced office concept? Something entirely unique.
That’s just what Orega Business Centres has done in the United Kingdom. The conversion of “The Beehive” airport terminal should spark ideas for serviced office operators around the world looking for expansion opportunities that set them apart from the competition. As you read this, keep in mind that the conversion idea would work just as well as Los Angeles, New York City or Houston — or any other U.S. city, as it would in the UK.
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“This exceptional landmark building perfectly fits with our philosophy of providing an exciting and innovative working environment, and our involvement with The Beehive will allow a number of businesses to share in the use of this incredible historic site, which is perfectly located at the heart of Gatwick’s commercial office centre in City Place,” said Paul Finch, joint managing director of Orega.
An Art Deco Concept
The Beehive served as headquarters for franchised airline GB Airways for many years before it was converted into serviced offices in 2008. The Beehive will go down in airport history for being the first fully integrated airport building. It still serves as an important example of airport terminal design today.
Architects Hoar, Marlow and Lovett originally designed the Beehive based on Morris Jackaman’s vision in. Its Art Deco architecture is striking, built with a steel frame with brick layers inside. The interior is made up of concentric rings of rooms and offices with corridors in between them. The idea was to keep arriving and departing passengers separate. It took five months to gain planning permits to convert the building into serviced office space. The Bland Group invested £1.2m in a complete refurbishment.
The two-story building on Beehive Ring Road now offers flexible, modern offices with leading-edge IT and telecoms technology, contemporary interior styling, fully equipped conference and meeting rooms, and 128 parking spaces. It also features a dynamic interior and exterior lighting system that changes the color of the building throughout the day and evening. Within the business center, Orega can provide a full range of services, from couriers and proof-reading to hotel reservations and language translation.
Partnering for Profits
Although Orega wasn’t behind the conversion to serviced offices, the company has expanded its operations at the 22,000-square-foot business center next to the Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex. Orega took on a new 10-year joint venture management agreement with the Bland Group after former occupier GB Airways was sold to easyJet. The Bland Group, which had owned GB Airways, bought The Beehive in 2001.
“Our joint venture with Orega enables us to provide some of the best shared serviced offices in the south east of England,” said Iain May, CEO of the Bland Group. “We selected Orega to operate The Beehive as we were impressed with the quality of their offices, their management style and their business philosophy, and we wanted to be part of their growing success in creating distinctive and well-managed business centers.”
Paul Finch and fellow managing director Zach Douglas launched Orega in 2000. Like many other serviced office providers, such as Regus Group, Office Suites PLUS and Premier Business Centers, Orega has recently accelerated its opening program to take advantage of the current market and the growing requirement for quality flexible office space. The company plans to double in size in the next 12 months from five to 10 sites in carefully selected UK locations, putting over 250,000 square feet of prime offices under its management.
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Maggie Correta April 28th, 2009 at 6:06 am
What a great story. I heard of an old factory that was converted into serviced office space, but nothing quite as unique as this. This is a great opportunity in this market. Companies can buy up existing buildings with some unique features that are sitting vacant and refurbish them as serviced offices. Does anyone have any other examples of this?
Marcus Hester April 28th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Have you seen the pictures of this serviced office facility? This is really Art Deco at its finest. I love the circular floors. What a neat experience it would be to go to work at an executive office suite like this every day. Kudos to Orega Business Centers for having the insight to latch on to this gem of an office space.
Elizabeth Sanchez April 28th, 2009 at 10:00 am
This is fantastic! What a unique serviced office space. I mean, granted, it’s just a design. But since serviced offices are so similar in what they offer, this is one way for Orega to stand out. Having a really cool building to house its executive office suites should bode well for the company, and it’s strategic airport location should mean some built-in clients.
Rob Zeus April 28th, 2009 at 10:05 am
You bring up a good point about the location. It would seem that a serviced office facility at an airport would do well. Many types of entrepreneurs and small businesses need to be near the airport, and then you have the traveling businessmen who would like to have somewhere to set up for a few hours. I wonder if Orega has that sort of temporary office space in the mix.
John Graves May 18th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Fortunately, this won’t be happening to the beautiful art deco terminal in Houston. It is being preserved as a civil aviation museum by the Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society. See http://www.1940airterminal.org.