While visiting the Boxer Workstyle space on the fourth floor at 2855 Mangum , we caught a glimpse of LG Entertainment’s office space, and knew we had to come back to meet the tenants. The wedding entertainment company has a fascinating paper flower installation spilling across the walls of two neighboring suites. The walls are also used to showcase a projector gallery of photographs from successful parties LG Entertainment has thrown.
We sat down with Lewis Grell, the founder of LG Entertainment, to hear about his experience with Work style and how his company has grown in the space. Since he works in the entertainment industry specializing in weddings, Lewis collaborates frequently with other wedding contractors and also has a constant influx of clients to his office suite. The executive suite layout with shared common areas has worked very well for him, as other wedding professional services have been drawn to the space to work with him.
As one of our Workstyle tenants, what has your experience in the space been so far?
LG: It’s an open office space concept and we share it with other people. It’s definitely worked out very well for me in the way I have everything structured. I cater to my clients a lot of the time in the evening or sometimes earlier in the day. Since I’m the type of business that does that, I’ll have six clients scheduled to all come in at around the same time. I’ll have one in this room, one in the other room, one in the conference room and one in the common area. So this makes the environment feel very alive and social, and we’re not the only ones in the space either. It’s very busy. When I had a 3,000 SF office, if I had 2 clients there it was packed and it felt so claustrophobic.
There’s definitely a lot more value to it. It’s almost easier on the tenant to make payments on shared spaces versus larger spaces with larger rents. Turnover is less likely to happen. It’s been very popular and we have a lot in construction right now. It leases out really quickly.
How did you come to be at one of our Boxer Workstyle locations?
LG: I got lucky. My lease was almost up at another Boxer property. I remember when I was looking for a space 5 years ago before I signed a lease there, I wanted to move toward the 610 area to be more convenient to my clients. This time Boxer asked me to check out this new space on Mangum.
I walked in and I wanted to sign a contract right away. I asked her about the floors, if they were going to cover them up with carpet or leave the concrete. She said there would be concrete floors in the common areas and carpet in the private executive suites. I have a lot of entrepreneur friends in New York, and the interior design really gives the space the feel of a New York shared working space style.
I signed before construction had even finished. It’s a cool space where you can come and go and interact with your neighbors, it’s not so closed off. In this suite we have a nonprofit next door and a coordinator on the other side. We’re an event industry theme in this space, which is nice.
Relocation Into Boxer Property
What was the biggest challenge about relocating?
LG: When I moved I had an open house with all of my wedding industry vendors. Everybody said to me, “Lewis, not only did you go from like 3,000 SF to 300 SF, and you also relocated.” It’s quite a change in space and financially too, so it’s a great win for everyone. Everybody was asking me if there was going to be more space available at Mangum and I said yes they’re actually constructing one upstairs. So I had a vendor move up there, and I had a coordinator and invitations girl move in too. That was only in this building, and when I looked online a few months ago I saw there was so much more Workstyle space being developed, which is great.
So you DJ music, do you play live music too?
LG: Yes, but the guitar is just a doorstop – it’s one of those out of the box type conversation starter type things. We also do lighting. I team up with a lot of photographers and use their work to display to my clients what this hue of lighting looks like at their venue. I’ll have a DJ back there playing music, too. The more comfortable the clients feel, the better the event goes.
What’s the history behind your business and how you got into it?
LG: For me it started as a hobby on the weekend, and then I took a leap of faith 5 or six years ago and started building up a staff. Now I have about 30 people working underneath me. A lot of them don’t have office desks, they come in for meetings and do all of the execution on the events. Here in the office we have about 5 people in 3 spaces.
What did you do before LG Entertainment?
LG: I was a store manager for T-Mobile. I managed 3 or 4 stores on the corporate side. Before that I served in the US Marines and did a tour in Iraq.
How do you see LG Entertainment growing in the space? What’s next?
LG: I would really like to see this Workstyle concept in other cities. I would really like to expand to Dallas, and I’d love to have a similar look over there in Austin and San Antonio as well. We do events from coast to coast, but we do a lot of events in the nearby cities. It makes it a lot easier if we have a space like this available there to meet with clients.
* We have coworking space available in Dallas, Atlanta, multiple locations in Houston and many projects in construction. For more information about Workstyle space visit http://www.boxerworkstyle.com/
What’s the wildest wedding or event that you have been to or thrown?
LG: I had a client who entered from the roof – a section of the roof came down and they stepped off. There was another couple that came in on a black limo and it parked in the middle of the dance floor. In another one where, people married in the Edison library downtown. It was very nice, the flowers were beautiful. But they were probably one of the wildest, craziest families breaking it down on the dance floor. I like my job. It’s kind of cool.
Where do the paper flowers on your suite’s walls come from?
LG: A lady named Christine from the Ukraine designed them. They are paper. She designed the other office first, and then we converted this office into a meeting space as well so the other one has a flat screen on the wall whereas in this one we threw a projector image on the wall to give it a clean look.
To learn more about LG Entertainment or book them for an event, visit their website at www.lgentertainers.com or find them on Twitter @LGEntertainers.
If you’re looking for your own office like this in Houston , check out this helpful Office Space Search for available properties .
