Get a Cube and More at Sunshine Suites – It’s Like The W Hotel

Yesterday I spent some time with Cheni Yerushalmi. Cheni is the managing director of Sunshine Suites, a shared work environment. I’ve heard Cheni pimp Sunshine at many of the NYC meetups over the past few months and figured it was a typical Regus-style office setup. You know the type – you get a cube or an office in a large, cold, white-walls location. No one talks to each other, they work and leave. Boy, was I wrong!

Cheni showed me around his locations at 419 Lafayette and 12 Desbrosses Street in Manhattan. The space feels like a W hotel in terms of design, layout, lighting, etc. It certainly doesn’t feel like a traditional office. The license comes with full Internet access, faxing, printing, conference room access, video conferencing, etc. The networking seems to be one of the biggest draws of the space

Security is very important when you are sharing an office space. The suites all have doors that lock and Cheni runs a background check on every person who rents a suite. He said that he wants to make sure there are no criminals inside his suites and that this is one difference between Sunshine and traditional co-working.

Pricing is $425/desk/month plus $50 if you want a landline (it’s not required). Instead of a lease, there’s a licensing agreement similar to with software. You can switch locations twice a month for no fee and you can cancel basically anytime. If you are one person, the setup is a bit different – you can choose to share a 2 person suite for $475/month, a one-person suite for $575/month. Cheni noted that many individuals choose to license the entire 2-person suite for themselves at $850/month.

Some of the largest groups in the space have 16+ desks. It looked like most were in the 4-10 person range.

The perks make this space almost unbelievable. They are adding a live sushi bar for lunch, have a retreat house in Vermont that is available to members, and a roofdeck that can hold about 500 people for a party. Even the bathrooms are clean and W-hotel like in design and form.

It seems to be a great option for the team who wants to get out of the house but aren’t ready for an entire office to themselves yet. Here are a few photos from the space: