Blue 35 creates high tech office, conference spaces for rent

Blue 35, made possible by a collaboration between Rockford Construction and Haworth, has already seen a lot of use of their short-to-long-term office and conference rentals since opening on February 5. Since February, over 100 conference meetings have been held in the space and many of its available spaces have been rented out.

Blue 35 has many amenities, like 24/7 access, on call reception, shared printer copier, shared kitchen, free conference rooms and high speed Wi-Fi. A new rooftop terrace is also available, that includes a kitchen on the same level available for caterers.

One amenity that renters will not be able to find elsewhere is the renting of Bluescape technology, a new software that allows people to work satellite on almost any material at the same time. Bluescape is a giant wall of digital space where you can pin any media you need to work on, and then have that media be accessed remotely by anyone you allow also using Bluescape. In essence it is a 21st century bulletin board, only you do not have to have all the contributors be in the same place, or even the same country for that matter. Bluescape can be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection. 

“What Bluescape allows us to do is real time collaboration [on] anything that is image driven," says Sarah Abel, the conference and program manager. "Where this technology shines is anything visual- Bluescape is to expedite that process. Blue 35 is the only place in the world that you can rent this kind of technology."

While Bluescape is available for purchase, it is only offered for rent through Blue 35. The scope of Bluescape would allow people anywhere to work directly on visually reliant projects. There are quite a few tenants making use of it, says Abel.

There are two floors of space for tenants to rent for a year, a month or even as short as one day. Renting options are available to anyone in the community, whether part of a business or working on another project.

“The building is still growing, and can be custom tailored to a business’ needs,” says Abel. It currently houses two conference floors at the very top, and two smaller office spaces on some lower levels.

Built in 1914, the building was Grand Rapids' first fireproof hotel. Rockford Construction and Haworth renovated what had become a dilapidated space into what is now Blue 35.