ADDISON, TX-At one time, if you mentioned the term "executive suites," what might have come to mind were small business owners who needed an "official" place to get their phone calls answered, to host meetings or to make copies. But not any more.

Regus Group plc vice president of corporate accounts Scott Hartman points out that executive suites and virtual suites are becoming part and parcel of a trend in the global workplace; namely the move to reduce commercial real estate costs.

"They're reducing costs by de-desking and sending people home to work," he tells GlobeSt.com. "What's really driving our business is that those employees need a place to work, to meet and to have that confidential discussion." As such, he goes on to suggest, companies are leveraging Regus' portfolio to reduce their own space. And, as such, this is fueling the expansion of Regus, which has its US headquarters in Addison, TX.

The concept of executive suites isn't new – Regus itself has been around for more than a decade. But the fact that corporations are making use of executive suites was hatched in the aftermath of the 2008 economic collapse, when they were forced to downsize their commercial real estate holdings. These days, with the economy on its upward growth trajectory, "both the entrepreneur and Fortune 500 organization are looking to be more flexible, to react to the marketplace fast and to reduce real estate costs," Hartman comments.

In 2011, the management of Regus, headquartered in Luxembourg, announced plans for global expansion; Hartman indicates that the plan in 2013 is to grow the footprint by 25% globally.  But the typical Regus location isn't necessarily in the urban core, as much as it's in suburban markets. "We're trying to get closer to where people live," he explains. "Ten years ago, someone might drive 45 minutes to an hour to get to an office they worked at eight hours a day." But many of those people aren't spending their workdays onsite at the office any more. "If they're not going into the office today, and they're only stopping in for an hour-long meeting, it doesn't make sense for them to commute an hour for that," Hartman says. "Getting the workplace closer to where they live makes more sense."

On the local level, CBRE is working with Regus to find space for new office suites. CBRE vice president Mike Clearly tells GlobeSt.com that the space selection model is more of a retail mentality, rather than an office space mentality. "We want to be where the clients want to be; where it's convenient to office," he notes. "We look for areas representing confluence of activity, and that provides easy ingress and egress as well as surrounding amenities."

Locally, it means Regus centers in McKinney, Addison, Frisco and other suburbs. A good example is Southlake, TX, a bedroom community to the northwest of Dallas and to the northeast of Fort Worth. "Most of the people coming in from Southlake, Westlake and that overall part of the DFW region would come into Las Colinas and Irving to work," Hartman says. But when construction was launched near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport – the path between those suburbs and the office center of Las Colinas, commuting became difficult. "They don't need to drive through that construction to go to Irving or Las Colinas," Hartman points out. "Instead, they can drive to the center in Southlake."

In addition to location near where the people are, CBRE's senior vice president Mike Kay tells GlobeSt.com that the typical office size for a Regus platform is anywhere between 12,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet. "What Regus will do is go in and sign a long-term lease, then design the space specific to smaller tenants' needs," he says. Those needs would include private offices, a business lounge, a conference room and a reception area. "It's all the amenities of a larger office, but designed specifically for the smaller, more mobile workforce," Kay says.

And the landlords like this. "Regus comes in and takes a big block of space and signs a long-term lease, which is meaningful to the landlord," Kay explains. "Regus can incubate the smaller tenants who will grow, get used to the building, stick around, and eventually do direct deals with the landlords." The centers also prove to be good "holding space" for tenants wanting to get into a building, he adds.

But does this mean the death knell to the traditional commercial real estate model for office space, especially given the fact that technology makes it easy to work just about anywhere? Hartman says absolutely not; the space itself won't be changing, but who occupies it will be. Cleary also points out that the Regus concept is geared toward two types of users: the entrepreneur and the companies, especially global ones, that are attempting to establish beachheads in new locations.

"As those companies grow, they spill out of the Regus center and they get to a point where they might want a true office environment versus the smaller, more mobile, more transient office," he adds.