Non-profits jump on low rents to upgrade offices

As Karen Barsell walks through the new digs of United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra, one employee after another claims to have the best office with the best view.

The nonprofit's new offices at 639 Isbell Road a block north of Moana near the Moana West Shopping Center are a significant upgrade from the space at 811 Ryland that United Way previously occupied for 16 years.

Like other nonprofits in northern Nevada, United Way is taking advantage of a depressed office market to move into higher-quality spaces that would have been beyond their reach five years ago.

"The nonprofits that are successful today are keeping their eyes open for opportunity" says Barsell.

Not all nonprofits, however, are convinced that moving into higher-quality space makes sense. At least one, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada, is looking to reverse course after moving into a corporate-style office building in mid-2010.

For United Way, the move initially was dictated by the need for improved conference space for meetings of United Way's member agencies as well as other classes.

The new 5,000-square-foot office, while smaller than the agency's old 6,000-square-foot quarters near Ryland and Wells, includes spacious, well-wired conference space.

Barsell says the agency's staff and board began studying a move in 2007 even before the real estate collapse cut many office rents in half.

The need for a different configuration of the agency's space became more acute, she says, as United Way trimmed its staff from a peak of 13 before the downturn to seven today.

Employees clearly responded to the new offices, with their third-floor views of the Reno skyline.

"Everyone is more dressed up," Barsell says. "There's a boost in morale. There's a different look to everyone."

For another Reno-based nonprofit, Northern Nevada Children's Cancer Foundation, is able to devote more of its resources to its core mission as a result of the real estate downturn.

The agency was given ownership of a 1,000-square-foot office space in a building at 3550 Barron Way, an office-flex building along Longley Lane near Double R Boulevard.

The property had been bank-owned. Debbie Strickland, executive director of the Children's Cancer Foundation, says Nevada State Bank donated it to the foundation.

The space wasn't ideal but it's free.

Strickland, her husband and volunteers remodeled drafty warehouse space in the back half of the property into office space for staff and volunteers.

Some days, Strickland says, as many as 16 workers are jammed into the small office.

But she says the crowding is tolerable because staff members realize the importance of saving on rent.

"It means that more of the dollars can go to our families," she says.

The trend is seen, too, at Vassar Cordone Non Profit Center, a block west of Kietzke Lane on Vassar.

Once a telephone company office, the building has been redeveloped into offices and shared conference facilities for nonprofit and community groups. Often, they are moving to the center from lower-quality spaces with limited facilities.

The nonprofit center is about 80 percent occupied these days, says developer Marion Tavenner Hose of Reno's AMH Properties.

A move into better-quality space, however, can present its own difficulties to nonprofits that want to stay close to the people they serve.

"I would rather move down again," says Ann Silver, chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada. The agency moved to the Moana-and-Lakeside neighborhood from its previous office near Wrondel Way and Plumb Lane.

The 5,200-square-foot space currently occupied by the nonprofit at 745 W. Moana Lane works well for employees, Silver says, but may be daunting to families who want to tap into the services of Big Brothers Big Sisters.

"A corporate environment may not always be the most comfortable for them," Silver says.

As Big Brothers Big Sisters looks for space that balances the needs of participating families with the desires of employees for an attractive work environment, Silver thinks the agency might be able to reduce its expenses once again.

"In this market," she says, "we probably can get space even less expensively."

SIDEBAR

Blackfire Investors property filling up

Leases with nonprofits are helping Blackfire Investors bring the 40,000-square-foot office building at 639 Isbell Road closer to full occupancy.

After United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra leased 6,000 square feet, the building is approximately 75 percent occupied, says Tilio Lagatta of Blackfire.

United Way joins Nevada Volunteers, the nonprofit previously known as Nevada Commission for National and Community Service, Inc., in the building a block north of Moana Lane near its intersection with Lakeside Drive.

Remodeled by Blackfire Investors after it completed the acquisition in 2007, the building also is drawing tenants who are looking to upgrade their space the "flight to quality" often cited by office brokers.

Lawyer John Hope, for instance, recently moved to the building from a building on West Second Street.

Blackfire also has remodeled some of the space as executive suites.

Tim Ruffin and Melissa Molyneaux of Colliers International handle leasing of the property.

NNBW staff