Pacific Business Centers has grown to 12 locations since it started in 2003. CEO Laurent Dhollande chats here with Lydia Rivera, senior vice president with Athens Benefits, a tenant in Palo Alto. Pacific Business Centers offer office space, services 'on tap' Silicon Valley Business Journal - March 14, 2008 by Stephanie Soong You could think of Laurent Dhollande, the CEO and co-founder of Pacific Business Centers (PBC), as the affable bartender of an unusual bar. His Palo Alto-based company offers turnkey, fully serviced office space on an as-needed basis. "It's an office on tap," says Dhollande. Leases can be as long as two years and as short as two hours; costs run about $75 monthly for a virtual office and about $1,000 monthly for a full-time office. PBC offers access to a smorgasbord of options for time-starved, budget-sensitive entrepreneurs, professional firms and corporations: conference rooms, the Internet, administrative services, videoconferencing equipment and more. Virtual office plans target mobile professionals who only need services like dedicated phone lines and voicemail. Since launching in 2003, PBC has grown to 12 locations in the Bay Area. It acquired two centers in Sunnyvale and Cupertino and plans to open a new center in Sacramento in a couple of months. The company is also affiliated with Alliance Business Centers, a worldwide office-space provider, giving PBC tenants access to 550 global locations. Inspiration came while Dhollande prepared presentations on hosting services for Sun Microsystems Inc., where he held various executive-management positions. "The whole idea behind the hosting business was that someone was going to take care of it for you, and you pay per use," he explains. "The same thing could apply to work spaces." While the concept isn't new -- the United Kingdom has been doing it for years -- it's catching on in Silicon Valley. When the 17,500-square-foot, 60-suite Palo Alto location opened in 2007, occupancy reached 80 percent after 8 months. The relatively young company says business is booming: It will approach $10 million in annual revenue, and is growing by 50 percent per year. Recently, PBC finished its first round of financing, and is planning to raise a second. In many ways, Silicon Valley is an ideal place for operations. "Silicon Valley tends to be the place where it embraces a new model more quickly than other places," says Dhollande. One notable tenant is Splice Communications, a multi-million-dollar telecom company that started up at the San Mateo Atrium location. "It allowed us to grow our business without the concern of growing our facilities," says Andy Coan, president and CEO of Splice. "We are very happy here at PBC." While the company is growing, obstacles remain: the costs of opening new centers and convincing potential landlords to form joint ventures. "They love the idea, but it requires a lot of education," Dhollande adds. The goal is to be a billion-dollar industry leader. Already, PBC is eyeing expansion in San Diego, Arizona, Washington and Oregon. "We want to continue on the right path," Dhollande says. Stephanie Soong is a freelance writer. < Return to Press Coverage | Return to Top ^