Peter Schorsch
Inside the Tallahassee beltway, the rule of thumb for those who work in The Process is “see and be seen.”
The nearer you are to the Capitol, the better for your profile. So, with a downtown Duval Street location from which you could practically throw a spitball and hit the Capitol, Sachs Media has long held a coveted spot for 15 of its 25 years — in a prominent, signed landmark building that even a Governor is driven by frequently on his way home from work.
Well, that building went on the market this week, and according to founder/CEO Ron Sachs, it reflects a positive and historic trend taking shape across the country as workplaces large and small shift to a hybrid new way of working.
“We once joked that it’s not like we have walk-in business,” Sachs recounts. “But actually, fairly often over the years, lobbyists, lawyers or others have walked into our lobby on their way back from The Capitol to pick our brains and seek our help on a challenging issue. Having curb appeal in the nearest blocks to the Capitol has helped build our brand and our business.”
That downtown presence remains important to the Sachs firm. But what changed is the need for so many individual offices and so much total space.
Sachs Media has continued to add team members and clients even through the pandemic, but no longer envisions a future in which their large Tallahassee staff all work 8-5 in a traditional office setting.
Since COVID-19 hit, most of the firm’s employees have been working remotely from their homes — in locations from Tallahassee to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and even Bentonville, Arkansas.
“We learned two important lessons — that our team can be as or more productive working from home, and that when we drop the expectation that most people have to be here in shared physical brick and mortar space, we can recruit top talent from anywhere in the country,” said Michelle Ubben, Sachs Media’s president.
This week, Sachs Media listed its building for sale, as it begins positive plans to find and outfit a new downtown location that prioritizes cool, creative space for collaboration.
In that move, Sachs Media joins the likes of companies like Spotify and Salesforce in New York City, Ford in Michigan, and Target in Minnesota in embracing the hybrid workforce — a trend that is changing the face of offices across America.
The savings from not maintaining as large an office will allow the company to invest in technology to enhance collaboration across geographies, in workspaces that promote creativity, and in further developing the skills of people they employ.
Sachs Media has long recognized that furniture and the way a space is laid out impacts creativity.
The firm previously worked with Perdue Office Interiors to outfit their space for collaboration, and the result was featured in an 850 Magazine spread. Now, the plan to downsize into a smaller space will allow the communications firm to engage in a fresh process to re-imagine how they work and how the space can support them.
Meanwhile, the sale of the longtime Sachs Media headquarters — a modern 7,000-square-foot free-standing one-story office building in the heart of the “Capital City”– is expected to draw lots of interest by other organizations: associations, law firms, lobbying firms, among them, that know the value of having their brand shining in the four-block power corridor near Florida’s Capitol.
