“Our space is a very important part of our business . . . It’s where we spend so much of our time coming up with the ideas that keep our company moving forward,” said Dennis Suggs, president and CEO of Cie Games, an offshoot of social media and mobile “app” developer, Cie Studios, which has grown from 25 to 98 employees.

The firm’s nearly 15,000-square-foot office arrangement takes up the entire 18th floor at the Landmark Square building at 111 W. Ocean Blvd., and is now considered a prime example of what creative office space designs in Long Beach could become, according to local business interior designers and property owners.

The space, designed by Los Angeles-based global architecture firm Gensler, won the 2011 REmmy Award for “innovative workplaces” from the Southern California Chapter of CoreNet Global. The project, put together on a “tight budget,” according to the designer, was hailed for “blending the design of the space [with] creating a new culture and thus raising the bar for real estate in Southern California.”

Matt Gammel, a senior associate at Gensler, said the project goes a long way in showcasing the local area’s potential. He said the firm chose to expand in Long Beach partly because of the local region’s growing digital tech “talent pool,” which traditionally has been dominated by Los Angeles or the Bay Area’s Silicon Valley.

“This not only gives a critical mass to the building . . . but also gives Downtown Long Beach that same kind of prestige . . . that a major player in the creative media market has chosen to locate in this particular area as opposed to other parts of Los Angeles County,” he said.

More and more creative companies and start-ups, whether in digital advertising, architecture or technology, are looking for affordable, yet inspirational work areas that speak to their profession, designers explained. Many digital firms need less storage space and, instead, are seeking more “connectivity,” meaning a variety of Internet connections and service providers in offices that encourage collaboration in the workplace.

The cool, quirky designs in old buildings – often with concrete, exposed ceilings and natural lighting and ventilation – are in contrast to the traditional, one-size-fits-all “vanilla” corporate offices of the past few decades, said Toliver Morris, property manager for Brookfield Properties, which owns Landmark Square. Although such renovations can become an expensive proposition for landlords, he said some property owners are willing to take the risk to accommodate today’s growing, tech-savvy firms that request more of a “personalized,” organic layout.

“Most companies are looking for something that’s unique,” Morris said. “They have to live in their offices for a large part . . . so they want to have something that reflects either their firm’s culture or their employees’ personalities.”

Michael Bohn, design director and principal of Studio One Eleven at Perkowitz + Ruth Architects, calls the movement a part of the growing “creative class” and sees the trend gaining momentum in Long Beach. “One way to create more office space and attract a creative class is to take some of these older, under-performing buildings and give them new life,” he said.

In the last two years, the office space market in Long Beach has somewhat firmed up, with sales and leasing activity continuing to improve. For many small firms, the city provides offers an urban, coastal setting that’s still affordable, Bohn said. Although property owners aren’t jumping to develop new office buildings just yet, what they are doing, he said, is embracing what some call “creative reuse,” or cost effective and sustainable renovations of existing office space to attract niche tenants. Bohn said it’s a market that has plenty of room to grow.

Creative Movement

One project that has helped birth downtown’s turnaround is Studio One Eleven’s development at 4th Street and Linden Avenue in the East Village Arts District. The award-winning project, completed in 2010, involved a team of local investors converting a rundown 20,000-square-foot former abandoned warehouse into an incubator of creative office suites called East Village Creative Offices.

Today, the complex – which features brick walls, natural lighting and ventilation and indoor and outdoor spaces – is home to such firms as: Ventures-web hosting, which relocated from the South Bay; Aetypic, a San Francisco-based architecture and engineering firm that opened a new branch office; and Lit Rite, a lighting consultant that relocated from Los Alamitos.

Other firms at 4th + Linden include: Lyons Art Supply, which relocated from across the street; Dash Dot, an industrial designer from Signal Hill; Atlantic Studios Hair Saloon, which relocated from Retro Row; JR van Dijs Inc., a developer and contractor from Alamitos Beach; and a new public policy/planning consultant start-up known as City Fabrick.

Bohn said the creative office complex has spurred what the design firm calls “incremental urbanism,” where small-scale improvements positively play off each other toward a more cohesive, sustainable and healthy environment. Across the street, for example, Berlin Café has installed a new “parklet” – considered one of the first of its kind in Southern California and also designed by Studio One Eleven – that replaces a parking space with a casual, outside sitting area for local patrons, professionals and residents.

Similar designs have also taken root in other more inland parts of Long Beach, Bohn added, including The ZaSo (Zafaria South) Design District, where old industrial buildings were converted into creative office spaces on Coronado Street, just north of Anaheim Avenue. Last year, the business district introduced lunch trucks to inspire a more collaborative business environment.

Historical Assets

Some tenants, developers and property owners are also looking to revive old, historical buildings through “adaptive reuse,” where city planners scale back zoning regulations to allow purposes different than a building’s original use. One example is a project underway to restore the American Hotel at 224 E. Broadway, built in 1905 and considered one of the oldest commercial structures in Long Beach.

Alan Burks, president of Environ Architecture, Inc., said his company is designing the project with developer Jan van Dijs, responsible for restoring The Art Theatre, and advertising firm interTrend Communications, Inc. Once the property changes hands from the city’s defunct redevelopment agency, plans for the ground floor call for office space, restaurant and retail use, he said, while the second and third floors are to be occupied by the advertising firm. “In Long Beach, there’s still a continuing trend of reusing historical assets,” Burks said.

Environ has also helped revitalize the Arts Building, a 1930s structure with Art Deco-style reliefs and architecture at 236 E. 3rd St. The building that once housed a local newspaper printing press is now occupied by Cardinal Career College that provides private education courses and other services.

After designing the interior for the ground floor and basement with concrete-coffered ceilings and lighting effects, Environ is currently working on plans with van Dijs and the property owner to incorporate a European-style café and lounge. “We took advantage of the historic character of the building,” Burks said. “It’s a very nice space.”