Office space rental company adjusts services as remote work increases in Santa Barbara

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – When four local entrepreneurs launched the coworking space Workzones in Santa Barbara just over a decade ago, the practice of working remotely was limited to a small subset of individuals and companies.

Ten years and one pandemic later, entrepreneur Pam Tanase of Workzones said remote work has become a common reality for millions of employees and business owners.

Tanase and fellow entrepreneurs Kirk Peacock, Mike Franco and Lisa Riolo founded Workzones in March, 2013. 

At the time, they all ran small businesses from home but were frustrated with the arrangement. 

Their goal was to create an affordable, shared workspace with meeting and conference rooms where independent workers and business people could enjoy the amenities and social opportunities of an office environment, without fixed leases and high overhead.

Today, the space is filled with private offices, hybrid meeting rooms, board rooms, training rooms, and team suites to provide the work-space options needed for growth and engagement.

“More and more companies are scaling down their permanent office spaces and using businesses like Workzones to provide smaller-scale or temporary workstations for remote staff and utilizing conference rooms when the team needs to collaborate in person as needed,” said Tanase. “We could not have imagined such a large shift to remote work when we began Workzones 10 years ago, but we’re finding that demand for flexible office space, meeting rooms, events and coworking options continues to increase.” 

What Workzones has experienced is consistent with what Greg Bartholomew, a partner with Hayes Commercial Group, has observed. “Many office tenants in downtown Santa Barbara have reduced their footprints over the past three years as employees have opted for remote or hybrid work ... In this fluid and rapidly evolving situation, companies are seeking flexibility above all, which is usually not possible with a traditional office lease.” 

In order to accommodate the increase in remote and hybrid work, Workzones has created new corporate membership plans. 

These memberships can be customized to include any combination of hourly, daily and monthly use of offices, meeting room reservations and coworking solutions for all of a company’s employees. 

As the commercial office space industry adjusts to the new reality, Workzones is also seeing increased demand for access to large, creative spaces that can be used for meetings, events and exhibitions. 

Workzones’ 1,000-square-foot event area, known as the Tower, has recently hosted professional networking groups, business lunch presentations and fashion design exhibitions. 

Workzones is located at the Paseo Nuevo mall inside a private second-floor building. 

Members have access to a coworking space that includes a communal kitchen, café, business lounge and phone booths. 

Amenities offered are complimentary beverages, utilities, fast Wi-Fi, mail and concierge services, printing, scanning, and accommodation of corporate IT requirements. 

Meeting rooms for up to 75 people can be booked by the hour or day and include a white board, HDTV, conference phone, and technology to support hybrid meetings. 

Hosted business hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but weekend and after-hours access can be arranged.

Mall security personnel provide round-the-clock safety.

Workzones is located at 351 Paseo Nuevo, 2nd Floor, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101. 

For more information visit https://workzones.com, email host@workzones.com or call 805-966-3722.