Byte & Mortar is Every Flavor of Office

Traditional offices. Home offices. Traveling offices. Co-working offices. 

 

The wheres and the ways people work are ever-changing, and companies like Byte & Mortar in Troy are bringing different work styles under one roof. From its renovated 6,000-square-foot office building in Troy, Byte & Mortar houses 18 traditional private offices, one big, open co-working space, a business center, conference rooms, meeting areas, and a virtual receptionist and other business services for its clients, including workers who work in no office at all. It's a shared office with shared amenities such as a lobby, kitchen, bathrooms, a courtyard, coffee, tea, internet, faxes, mail and more used for all sorts of entrepreneurial and commercial endeavors.

 

"You could certainly get a traditional office where you rent a space and send your checks to the landlord, but what we provide is a full office ready to go, data ready to roll…There's nothing that you could need in an office that we don't offer," says Byte & Mortar founder Daniel Haberman, an attorney whose experience in restaurants and nightclubs (The Bosco, Magic Bag) taught him to anticipate customer wants and needs. "I don't know if there's anyone who does exactly what we do in the market. It's the range of services and the intensity of services. There are a few co-working spaces out there. It's fantastic. It's really a growing segment of the market…the more options for folks to work the better."

 

Basically, Byte & Mortar - the byte being its technological and virtual services, the mortar being its physical workplace - is bringing the at-home workers and office roamers out of loud coffee shops and home offices with distractions like dogs and dirty dishes and into a real office environment. It's also giving them a place to bring clients to for meetings, rather than discussing business next to someone comforting a crying baby or catching up on the town gossip.

 

"We're bringing that same hospitality approach to the daytime workplace," says Haberman, who bought a vacant office building on Big Beaver Road, updated it and opened it as an office of the future in November.

 

One Byte & Mortar client shared her compliment on Byte & Mortar's Facebook wall: "The co-working space is sweeet... All the chairs are comfortable, I don't have to worry about someone swiping my laptop while I'm in the bathroom, and best of all... my clothes and hair are free of coffee stank!"

 

With Byte & Mortar there's no traditional lease or landlord. All utilities, phone and internet services, and custodial services are provided for as part of one-time, weekly or monthly rental fee. The fee gives users access to the offices seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and to services, depending on the type of office user. 

 

While co-working spaces and shared offices aren't new, mixing the yesterday and today of office-ing - and emphasizing the look, style, comfort and aesthetic effects of the interior - is something different in the world of workplaces.

 

Byte & Mortar is modern with bright whites, natural woods and punches of color like the aqua blue in the company logo. Art is an important component too, and Haberman brought on Scott Klinker from the Cranbrook School of Art to take care of it. 

 

"We brought it into the new millennium," Haberman says. "The co-working space is the room that really drops jaws. In that space, because it's a collaborative environment, we wanted to provide more creative stimulus. ...I also wanted the place to be as welcoming to a a young graphic designer as it would be for an IT tech or an attorney.

 

"Overall it's a very clean modern approach. It's not a sterile, stark facility…It's more design forward," he explains. "It's nice when I hear folks coming in and saying wow, this is nice."

 

And the design is about more than looks.

 

"If you're happy in the facility you work in because it makes you feel good you're hopefully going to be more productive."

 

As the debate over the merits of working from home or strictly at the office ramps up with Yahoo's decision to curb workplace flexibility, Byte & Mortar is filling up its space. The Internet giant's move against far-flung employees working from home is a popular topic on Byte & Mortar's Facebook page, with Byte & Mortar shouting out: "Yahoo you should call us. We can help."

 

Byte & Mortar is also attracting the company owner, employee or freelancer who hails from outside the state or country but needs a Michigan address or stateside receptionist. 

 

"We could have clients in San Diego who just need Michigan as their address, and from here they can do business anywhere in the world," Haberman says. "And then we have those who just need the mailing address, the receptionist. If they work from home or the beach or a cabin in the woods, they have an office taking care of their needs. We're (also) seeing a lot of international clients, which is absolutely fantastic."

 

The meeting rooms and conference rooms are a particular draw for event planners and companies, especially newbies, with no professional place to bring their people or clients together.

 

"The office will never disappear," Haberman forecasts. "Even if the business of the office might be much more flexible than it ever was."

Kim North Shine is a freelance writer and Development News Editor for Metromode.

All Photography by David Lewinski Photography