Office Community Concept Coming to Marshfield’s Blodgett Haus
OnFocus – Although the concept of “co-working” has been popular in bigger cities for many years, the Blodgett Haus Office Community may be Marshfield’s first.
Co-working environments are shared office communities where individual spaces are available for rent. Often, they feature open floor plans where freelancers, remote workers, and entrepreneurs can rent a desk or office for work and be surrounded by other professionals in related or unrelated fields.
These work environments provide opportunities to work in a professional environment without the responsibilities of maintaining and paying for a traditional office. They allow more privacy than working from a coffee shop and more professionalism than working from home. Co-working spaces offer a collaborative and social environment, which can be beneficial for those who currently work alone.
“We are super excited to get some neighbors,” said Christopher Howard, Executive Vice 
President of Browns Living, the company that owns Blodgett Haus and also houses its corporate offices there. “When we renovated the building a few years ago, we knew we created more space than we needed. I can’t wait to see the empty offices filled with other professionals and businesspeople like us.”
Co-working office community concepts are designed to improve focus and efficiency for businesspeople. “The monthly rent includes coffee, office supplies, printing, paper, utilities, maintenance, furniture, and more,” said Howard, who owns the building with his wife and parents. “We tried to eliminate all the little annoying things that steal productivity. Businesspeople don’t want to spend all day shopping for paperclips or fixing printers. They want to stay focused on their businesses.”
The Blodgett Haus office community is part of a greater trend of business professionals in Marshfield moving downtown. Simplicity Credit Union and Fairway Mortgage are currently renovating large buildings downtown to create office space. Other professional services such as financial advisers, attorneys, accountants, and nonprofit organizations have recently opened new locations downtown.
Christopher and his wife Erin, who is President of the Board of Main Street Marshfield, have purchased and renovated eight downtown buildings over the last ten years. They are excited to see more businesses moving downtown. Erin works with other building owners and tenants to encourage the right businesses to locate in the right places for the greater good of the downtown.
“I’d like to see retail and restaurants on the main drag with professional services on the side streets and second floors, said Erin Howard. “However, I do understand the certain buildings such as Blodgett Haus are already designed for office space. In those cases, I’d like to see those buildings packed with workers who visit the surrounding stores and restaurants frequently.”
“People like to be close to other services. I love being able to walk to the post office, walk to get my hair cut, walk to lunch, walk to the bank. Everything is right here and I love it,” added Christopher.
-Submitted to FOCUS by Browns Living
