I told my Uber driver the center was "right where the giant violin is." It turns out the statue out front is a cello, and Jessica, the manager at Lyric Works (an Alliance workspace), says that is exactly how most people find the building. "You know, the one in the Theater District with the cello player," she told me. "They all know exactly what I'm talking about."
Inside, Jessica runs a center with 61 private offices and, by her count, around 500 virtual clients. She calls the Alliance partnership "a big chunk of our revenue." I sat down with her to hear how her team built a place that clients, tenants, and neighbors all seem to like being in.
Lyric Works sits in the middle of Houston's Theater District. "We've got the ballet behind us, the Wortham Theater next to us, the Alley Theatre in front of us, and Jones Hall, which is the symphony," Jessica said. Theatergoers park in the garage and eat in the market, and people stop all day to take photos with the cello. The courthouse is a short walk away, which is why the tower is about 90% law firms. Some of those tenants have been there more than 25 years.
Walking through the market, I was impressed. Jessica sees the same reaction in prospective tenants. The market was renovated about six months before she arrived, and she says the amenities "make it easy to convert a client to want to choose this building."
The newest additions are a pickleball court and a photo booth. I loved that the court has a window so you can watch the games from the bar.
Jessica has tried to play twice without much luck, and she is not ready for her coworkers to watch from the bar. She has not tried the photo booth yet.
Jessica describes managing the center as running "a neighborhood apartment complex of offices, and everybody's coming outside barbecuing together."
The market hosts trivia nights, candle-making classes, and weekend pasta classes, and her team has hosted a flower arranging evening with wine for tenants.
"You don't realize how much all you need is wine and flowers," she said.
The mix in the building is wide. Along with the law firms, there is a therapist, a financial advisor, and a real estate tenant. Jessica likes the variety, and she likes bringing people together even more. "I like to bring people together," she told me. "Work should not be a place that you don't want to be."
Behind it all is a team of three. Jessica and Evelyn work full time, and Linda is part time. Evelyn handles most of the mail for our virtual clients, and Jessica's advice to any manager adding virtual clients is to be very organized and have somebody devoted to helping with the mail. "That is their mail, and oftentimes it's checks," she said. "You have to be detailed and ready to commit to it."
The partnership works for her because of the people on our side. "It's an easy partnership to continue to grow, because everyone at Alliance has been super helpful and easy to contact."
Partnerships like this one are what make the Alliance network work, and we love having Lyric Works as part of it. I hope to be back soon.