Black House & Co.: Open Work Space in Downtown Boston

A new open-plan co-working space is providing lease-free opportunities if you are looking for an office in Downtown Crossing. Black House, which is located at 44 School Street, offers monthly memberships and daily passes for solopreneurs, freelancers, and small business professionals. Black House opened the DTX location in the fall of 2013, and hopes to open four additional locations in the Boston area. BH DTX joins Cambridge open work spaces Workbar, NGIN Workplace, the Cambridge Innovation Center, and Geek Offices (which also has a Newton location).

The open office space has partnered with legal firm WilmerHale, with attorneys helping to provide capacity-building resources and foster strategies for long-term relationships. Beamonte Investments, one of the top investment firms in Boston, recently joined with Black House for a venture day. And Black House has also done an event with HI Media CTO Ivan Sosa, a Colombian app developer.

Behind the Scenes at Black House & Co

Co-working spaces like Black House offer all the amenities of the standard luxury office, without the ugly cubicles that we’ve all come to despise. It’s geared toward solo workers, startup businesses, and small businesses who need a space to work but either don’t want or haven’t budgeted to lease office space. By choosing to work out of Black House instead of the local Starbucks, these entrepreneurs gain access to amenities that include:

• Business mailing address to boost credibility
• Meeting rooms
• Color and black & white printing/copy
• Storage lockers
• Ergonomic office furniture
• Free snacks and coffee
• Equinox gym onsite
• Zipcar availability

Black House is easily accessible from the Park Street and Downtown Crossing T stations.

Membership levels

Inside, members can choose from private offices that allow plenty of space for thinking and working hard, or open space seating that fosters connectivity and serendipity. Black House does keep business hours, and members can only access the space between 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Those late-night strategy sessions will have to occur elsewhere.

Black House offers four different types of basic membership services. Those needing occasional services — for example, for a one-time event or while traveling for business — can purchase a daily pass. The current rates is $30. Those seeking to replace a home office with professional office space can purchase the “Total Access Monthly” pass for $350. This includes two hours of conference room time. Members needing an additional conference room can purchase one hour for $50. And workers needing virtual office access only can purchase one month’s access for $60. All membership levels include a daily printing quota.

While all of the membership levels cover Black House’s open space plan, workers and small businesses looking for private suites will have to pay extra. Black House offers private working rooms that accommodate as few as one and as many as six people. Like the open work space, the private work rooms offer ergonomic work seating, high speed internet, and amenities. Workers looking for private space in the shared environment will find the rates competitive with going rates for office space in downtown Boston. What they won’t have to compete with is that loud talker on the phone in the next cubicle.