How Albert Einstein and Virtual Offices have Changed the Way we View Time and Space

                   
                       
During the course of the last two thousand years, science has dramatically changed the way we view and understand time and space.  For the better part of this period, the civilized world subscribed to the Ptolemaic, or geocentric model of the universe, which placed the earth at the center of the solar system.  In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, stood the world on its head, with his introduction of a heliocenteric model - placing the sun at the center of the universe.

Since then, we've been shaken up a good deal more than that. Scientists now tell us that space and time were born some 13.7 billion years ago, with the big bang.  Far from being at the center at the universe, our solar system, along with everything else in the cosmos, is moving with great speed away from its original point of origin.

Albert Einstein, with his Theory of Special Relativity, helped us understand why we don't have to hold on to our chairs while we go hurtling through space.  Actually, no one in the world understands this, save for a few mathematicians of the same rank, but he made it digestible for us simple folk.

Imagine, he said, that we are standing on the ground, watching an airplane sail across the sky.  It appears to move slowly. However, if we were standing on a cloud right next to it, it would appear to rush past us at tremendous speed.  Yet, the people inside the plane hardly feel as if they are moving at all.

In the good old days, we used to think of space as something finite, measured by length, width and height.   Einstein threw in a fourth dimension - time.  Einstein perceived that space around mass was actually curved.  And that's not all.  Time, as it turns out, is not linear at all.  It actually slows down as you approach the speed of light.  

Enough about Einstein, however.  In the last twenty years, there has also been a re-conceptualization of time and space in the universe of commercial real estate.  Fortunately this revolution in is much less abstract. Once we believed that an office space could only be leased by a single entity for a prescribed period of time.  

This idea has been replaced by a virtual office model, which allows multiple tenants to coexist simultaneously in the same space.  The Queens NY office building now known as the Executive Office Center at Fresh Meadows was once home to First Choice Real Estate - a single tenant - for over twenty years. Now, the same space is the professional business address of over 150 different companies.  This doesn't have anything to do with space being curved or time being relative.  It merely allows multiple tenants to utilize the same space at different times.
  
A lot of business owners here in Queens New York and elsewhere - people who work out of their homes, for example - are not familiar with the concept of virtual offices.  They may associate the world virtual with ethereal or intangible.  But the space and services provided by the Executive Office Center and other office business centers are very real, and very inexpensive. They include personalized Queens telephone answering, telephone and internet service, Queens mailbox rental, access to ready to use office space and conference rooms, and much much more.  

In just two decades, the concept has spread across the globe, and can be found in every major metropolitan center in the world. It is such a practical and cost effective alternative to traditional office space, it is just a matter of time before it changes the rental marketplace forever.

Virtual Office Business Model Becoming an Attractive Alternative to Traditional Office Space in Queens NY

Virtual officeservices and serviced office space are quickly becoming a favored alternative to traditional office space in Queens, New York.

The Executive Office Center at Fresh Meadows , which opened in October of 2011, is the first such office center to open in the borough of Queens, and has already attracted over one hundred tenants and virtual tenants!

I am a personal believer in the virtual office business model for small businesses.  It’s such a practical and cost-effective alternative to traditional office space, it is just a matter of time before it changes the office rental marketplace forever.

The borough of Queens, NY, is a latecomer to the virtual office concept.  It's somewhat surprising, considering the fact that the idea has been around for a while, and that it's such an important component of the marketplace for office space in Manhattan. I believe that the economy of Queens, which consists primarily of small businesses, makes the virtual office model particularly relevant.

Over 100 companies have joined the Queens Executive Office Center since it opened last year. Nearly 40% of the firms are attorneys.  They are the ideal candidates for this type of office space. A lot of them don't really need full time office space, just a place to meet an occasional client. We have quite a few social workers and accountants, as well. But the rest of the companies span the professional and entrepreneurial spectrum from environmental consultants to real estate brokers.

This past week, the Executive Office Center was joined by the Law offices of Heath Goldstein & Caitlin Donahue, Expert Elevator Corp, Best Senior Home Care, the Eilav Law Firm and Lynx Electrical Corp.

When I started out in business 35 years ago, I wish I could have opened an office in Queens for $39/month and look like the consummate professional! With the advent of virtual offices, you can make it appear as if you have already conquered the world!

Why is this man upset with the Executive Office Center at Fresh Meadows?

One Queens Office Building Does More Than Offer Space For Rent. It Offers To Help Its Tenants Make More Money.

Executive Office Center owners, Steven and Jack Blumner may have hit upon a novel idea when they opened their state-of-the-art business center in the fall. The brothers, former owners of First Choice Real Estate, once the top selling residential brokerage in Queens, are not merely landlords.  They are actively engaged in helping their tenants make more money.

Since opening in October, the Executive Office Center at Fresh Meadows has attracted 50 tenants and virtual tenants, including seventeen attorneys.  “We’re right on schedule,” says Executive Director Jack Blumner, who expects that number to double by the end of the year.

The Executive Office Center, offering serviced office suites and Queens virtual office services, is the first such business center to open in the borough of Queens.  There are scores of executive suite office centers in Manhattan and Long Island, but none until now in the densely populated borough of Queens.

Executive suite centers typically offer a menu of administrative services to their tenants, but supplementing these services with marketing support elevates the concept of serviced office space to a new level.  

Jack and Steven Blumner are no strangers to marketing.  In the 1990s they made their company, First Choice Real Estate, a household name in Queens by sending out millions of pieces direct mail to homeowners in the borough.  Now they are using the World Wide Web to help accomplish their objectives. 

     What they have done is to develop two consumer websites to help promote and facilitate business for their tenants, as a value added benefit.  The two websites are www.everythingunder1roof.com and www.queensforless.com. 

·         www.everythingunder1roof.com is a business directory of the Executive Office Center at Fresh Meadows tenants that shortcuts the customer’s hunt for business and professional services in Queens.   There are presently 50 companies affiliated with the office center.  In time, there will be several hundred, says Mr. Blumner, “and we want Queens consumers to know that they can find virtually everything they need right here under one roof.”

·         www.queensforless.com offers coupon discounts for Queens neighborhood stores and restaurants, while featuring the professional and business services of the Executive Office Center’s tenants.   Consumers are lured to the website by attractive retail discounts.  Once there, they also find the many different professional and business services offered by tenants of the Executive Office Center.

   
Tenants of the Executive Office Center are also featured on the 16 foot LED display that faces the busy parking lot of the Fresh Meadows shopping center. 
    
The Executive Office Center is the perfect place for attorneys and other solo professionals and small companies doing business in the borough of Queens.  It is ideal for companies that need a branch or satellite office in the borough.  The Executive Office Center is also the closest office business center to JFK and LaGuardia airports.  Business travelers to New York may wish to take advantage of the building’s close proximity to the airports.  Day suites and conference rooms are available at hourly, daily and weekly rates.