After expanding its North Side hub and finishing construction on a Southtown location, a developer has identified their next target for a "flexible office" development.

Houston-based Braun Enterprises is currently under construction on a third Urban Office in the Medical Center, aiming to offer 88 offices for individuals and small companies at 8637 Fredericksburg Road. The company owns all four buildings on that tract, splitting the offices between two buildings while hunting for retail tenants to occupy the other two buildings.

With office footprints continuing to shrink in recent years, smaller firms have explored the utility of coworking and flexible office locations to meet their space requirements. Urban Office touts its ability to offer all of the amenities and networking opportunities of a standard office building with flexible lease terms and a focus on networking. The firm's location on the North Side — in the Century Heights office building — reached 100% occupancy and recently expanded to meet growing demand.

After some delays, the Southtown location recently opened for business.

Urban Office community manager Hillary Ross told the Business Journal the small offices that Urban Office specializes in are already drawing attention from a wide range of clientele.

"A lot of therapists are interested in that space," she said. "Attorneys are interested. These are the kinds of companies that seem to be drawn to that area. Those are also the
ones that we want to attract."

She said Urban Office's goal is to bolster the community of people that occupy their spaces.

"It's not just that we offer a space for businesses to work out of. We really want to encourage networking, not only within each individual property but to extend that networking opportunity to our other properties in the city," she said, adding that those opportunities extend to the company's eight Houston locations and two Austin locations.

Ross said there may be new locations being eyed, but she declined to comment on specifics. Construction is expected to wrap up in early fall. Local firm LK Design Group is the architect.

This article was originally published in the business journals.