Robert Grand, owner of Grand Realty, wears many hats. He is not only a real estate agent, but he’s also a fire captain with the Eugene Springfield Fire Department. He also is involved in various technology production projects. He and one other person use his Grand Realty private office in Eugene Mindworks as their main base, and two others also work from the office.
Grand found Eugene Mindworks about three years ago. “I was operating a virtual real estate company and got tired of working from my home,” he says. “I walked into the Mindworks office off the street to check it out and see what it was about.”
At first, Grand paid for a flex desk membership, which gives members access to standing/seated desks in the shared coworking main area along with conference room usage, kitchen usage and access to daily lockers. “As my company grew I then took a private office,” Grand says.
Grand later left his office in Eugene Mindworks and went to work for a large local real estate agency. While he learned from that experience, he also learned that the office environment at that agency was not the office environment he wanted when it came time for him to build his own real estate team. “It was a much more structured office space,” recalls Grand. “I left there after six months and came back to Eugene Mindworks to my own office. I’m more of an entrepreneur than a standard real estate agent, and that office was too gloomy for me. This location is hip, it’s cool, it’s different, and it’s what I wanted. I like that there are writers here, tech developers and people working on all kinds of projects side-by-side.”
Grand utilizes the conference rooms to give presentations and hold larger meetings. The offices and leases are flexible enough that if his company grows and he needs another office, he can rent one without being held to a long lease he can’t get out of. Grand completed 31 real estate transactions last year and is on track to surpass 40 this year. “I love the flexibility of this space,” he says. “I looked at other spaces that would have held me to a 5-year-lease and I didn’t want that. And, everyone that comes here asks what kind of place it is. When I explain it to them, they all think it’s pretty cool.”
