The turnkey office: definition and uses

As far as companies are concerned, the findings of the covid crisis and the new ways of working are clear-cut.

We need to make our real estate more flexible to gain agility and therefore resilience.

Crises are accelerating, business is short-sighted, professions are constantly changing, but real estate is still long-sighted, with inflexible leases, devoid of functionalities and disconnected from reality.

Today’s companies are looking for a workspace that reflects their personality, motivates them, determines their productivity, and where they can develop in the best possible conditions. Whether you’re growing, with a complex vision of HR and general services needs and the short-term office equivalent, or shrinking, with the aim of reducing costs by adapting your real estate footprint. It can be complicated to adapt walls to real time use… except that…

Except that there are many solutions for making real estate expenditure even more flexible: flexible offices, coworking, operated offices or turnkey offices (BOP), and so on.

Operated office [n.m] [byʁo] [ɔpeʁe]: fully furnished, private, independent workspace offering numerous benefits and services under a service contract

Synonyms: turnkey office, private space, private coworking center

And in detail :

Operated or turnkey, Hiptown flexible offices are fully-equipped, private spaces with all services integrated. No commercial lease, just a service contract that includes the space, its layout, access control, insurance, furniture, cleaning, internet, complementary services such as coffee and herbal tea, concierge services, entertainment, etc., as well as the possibility of adjusting the surface area upwards or downwards. In a nutshell, it’s all the advantages of a business center, coworking center or flexible office space, but in private mode and in the tenant’s corporate colors. It’s a form of white label that meets the need to “make company” and feel at home.

A single service contract that includes :

• Rent
• Taxes
• Taxes (on surface area)
• Electricity
• Heating
• Insurance
• Furniture
• Equipment
• Decoration
• Internet
• Household
• Maintenance
• Cafeteria consumables
• Signage

And, of course, a single invoice at the end of the month that takes everything into account.

This has a major impact on operations, as the company can concentrate on its core business and the realization of its project. The operator takes care of everything else.

Some operators, such as Hiptown, go even further, helping decision-makers to find the premises and offices that meet their needs, co-designing the space with four hands according to the company’s specific business requirements, fitting out the spaces with a low environmental impact charter and furniture, and operating on a day-to-day basis with unparalleled availability, attentiveness and pro-activity.

All types of companies benefit from turnkey or operated offices

Who can rent an office operated in France today?

Turnkey office leasing can be used in a variety of situations:

• during a period of significant growth, to rapidly expand space and offices according to your needs, and devote your workforce to your core business, leaving operational issues to the operator or manager
• when you want to focus fully on your core business, and leave property management, operations/management and the working environment to proven specialists in their field
• during medium-term transitions, such as the end of a lease to be managed, to a workspace, before moving into unfinished premises,
• for the youngest companies, coming out of incubators, coworking centers or other support structures, which do not have many assets or resources, let alone unstructured teams to manage this kind of project, which can sometimes prove complex
• when setting up a group business unit or project team in the regions of Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Rennes, Toulouse, Montpellier, Luxembourg, Paris, etc.
• Or to simplify installation and escape the often cumbersome and inert internal project management!

This frees companies from all the administrative aspects, and gives them the option of increasing or decreasing the size of their spaces, etc.

• Consulting or auditing firm for medium-term assignments in major French cities near transport hubs such as SNCF stations, bus stations, airports…
• Start-ups and young innovative companies in the process of structuring their products, offers and teams.
• Companies in cyberdefense, SEO, innovation consulting, digital, IT development.
• VSEs and SMEs in growth… or decline… to better accelerate or optimize your takeover under the right conditions
• Digital and creative agencies in need of modern, inspiring spaces
• Support business units deployed in the regions, which need functional space at a competitive cost
• Regional or departmental agencies wishing to have a “pied à terre” in their own colors without the need for complex project management

The operated office is experiencing a veritable BOOM throughout France

We’ve deliberately used rabbits to bring a little freshness to a very serious subject.

As defined by the Hiptown teams, the operated office is particularly adaptable and scalable to virtually any type of asset, and can be up and running extremely quickly (e.g. from 2 weeks to 3 months max, depending on Fiber rollout in Paris).

The standard specifications for BOP assets are :

• Cities: 10 major French metropolises and beyond to support local economic dynamics.
• Priority locations: city centers, train stations, metro stations, tertiary hubs and technopoles of excellence driven by strong themes. Visit
• In the end, the right location is the one the partner company has in mind for its teams and its product. The sky’s the limit as long as there’s a viable project.
• Target surface areas: from 200 m² to 2,000 m², mainly divided into medium-sized platforms of 250 m² to 600 m², rather than a single large platform. To support company growth, Hiptown can also take on the right of first refusal for an additional plateau as an option.
• Condition of premises: new, renovated or in good condition with minor refurbishment.
• A la carte services: coffee, concierge, F&B offers, events, fitness, parking according to customer needs.

In general, the most sought-after properties are between 300 and 1,500m2 near train stations or city centers, with a service base in the DRC that can be operated by Hiptown depending on its footprint on the asset (10-30% of total surface area).

These areas may need to be refreshed, but not completely restructured. The aim is to meet an urgent need within a short timeframe. Flexibility calls for almost ready-to-use surfaces.

According to the data we’ve been able to gather on the ground in the various cities where we’ve been operating since 2021 (beware of the figures and data announced by marketing platforms such as Ubiq or Workinspace) a space rents for 1.6 to 2 times more than a space with a conventional commercial lease.

But keep in mind that this “all-inclusive” service cost includes :

• negotiating with the lessor (rent, commitment), but Hiptown is the leaseholder, not YOU!
• space design (programming, partitions, design, build)
• office furniture (workstations and meeting rooms, television, etc.)
• furniture for living areas (kitchen, lounges, reception)
• cleaning services for the entire plateau (kitchens and toilets once a day, offices twice a week)
• security and access control for the building and plateau
• IT services including wifi, RJ45 network, printers, video projectors, televisions
• expenses (electricity, cleaning, taxes, etc.)
• coffee, tea and all that goes with it
• a dedicated office manager or not, depending on the size of the space

It’s worth noting that, unlike traditional contracts, the rental price of an operated office is often calculated per shift and not per square meter. In Paris, the average price of an operated office is €965 per m2 per year and €750 per shift per month, while in major French cities such as Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Rennes, Nantes, Bordeaux and Toulouse the price is €450 per m2 per year and €350 per shift per month.

Turnkey office space (BOP) is clearly the growth driver for office real estate over the next 10 years, as it matches the current needs of companies with the constraints of investors.
BOP is the missing link in the real estate value chain, which reinvents itself on a daily basis to find solutions.

Unequal ability of different categories of players to respond to market changes

The BOP is the common denominator in the relationship between lessors and tenants. The former in search of commercialization and the latter in search of acceleration or simplification of daily life.

Evolution of the weight of rental revenues (open or closed offices)
(Unit: share in % of total revenues.)

Today, across the entire Hiptown network, revenues from closed, dedicated and private offices account for over 85% of sales, and are steadily increasing, with the share of operated / turnkey office space becoming the majority.
The life cycle of the various flexible office offerings
Source : Xerfi : étude sur le bureau serviciel et l’avenir de l’immobilier flexible

1. The offices we operate offer all the advantages of a hybrid space: a mix of spaces, services and profiles, contractual flexibility, programming and layout, etc.
2. They position themselves as a trusted third party for owners and users to enhance the value of unoccupied spaces, and provide a differentiating offer in an increasingly competitive market where address is no longer everything.
3. The installation of a player like Hiptown is very agile, from a small area of flexible offices, to a large part of the asset in operated offices and even entrusting it with the management of the entire building (with Asset Managers like the La Française group): bringing together the group’s network of service providers, placing some of the building’s occupants in flex office, free use, etc.
4. Operated, turnkey or Asset Management Light office services can be combined with a more general hospitality service for the entire asset, a key factor in the attractiveness of traditional office buildings.
5. In the wake of the crisis, occupier services need to be reinvented, and we’re responding with a new financial model and a coherent experience approach across the entire asset, including turnkey/operated offices and even asset management with the Hiptown for La Française offer.

Here’s a quick overview (if you’d like to know more, don’t hesitate to ask us directly – we’ll be delighted to show you how)

• Briefing on general needs, constraints, strategic needs (recruitment, accessibility, reducing costs, flagship, temporality, business)
• Proposal of addresses, surfaces and concepts
• Overall financial proposal
• Co-design with teams
• Design
• Moving
• Installation
• Launch / Opening Party

Set-up time 2 weeks to 3 months max.

Access to the best stock of buildings and flexible workspaces nationwide (Top 10 owners / asset managers)

We deal on a daily basis with the largest real estate companies and asset managers in France and Europe, with direct, real-time access to their inventories.

They know us and are already familiar with our working methods and negotiating points, which considerably reduces negotiation times, which can sometimes be lengthy (we have already pre-negotiated leases, services, charges, etc.).

Functionalist and fundamentalist approach (we do things simply but well and on time)

We’re not here to sell dreams, we’re here so that you and your teams can work in the best possible conditions: comfort, peace and quiet, plenty of wifi, good coffee and well-being.

In fact, according to a study by the bureau-opere.com platform, the operated office addresses 4 fundamental business issues:

1. Economic and operational efficiency
2. Quality of life at work
3. Employer branding
4. Environmental impact

We offer a ready-to-use, ready-to-deliver catalog, so all you have to do is choose the furniture, chairs and parts that suit you… and all in line with our policy of reducing the environmental and low-carbon impact of our business.

In fact, Hiptown is considered the leader in eco-friendly spaces in France, and we give priority to reusing 2nd-hand furniture and reusing as much of it as possible. On average, our sites now save 2.7 kg of raw materials per m² and 11.8 kg of CO2 per m².

Depending on your wishes, needs and budget, we can offer you a range of services, fromexclusive to functional.

We have extensive experience in office management, and today Hiptown operates over 28 centers and offices throughout France. Our high product standards and obsession with customer experience and satisfaction have made us thehighest-rated operator on Google throughout France. Go and see for yourself.

We’re very proud of our product and our brand, but first and foremost it’s your office! That’s why we offer “white label” spaces, where we don’t impose strict design specifications. It’s your space, your team, your colors.

Our extensive experience of the real estate value chain – Owner / Asset Managers / Property Manager / Facility Manager / Operator / service providers (more cowboys than Indians) – has shown us that office management is highly complex, time-consuming and unsuitable. It is a profession in its own right that is detrimental to business productivity. Account Manager Hiptown who is the single point of contact for all requests

Hiptown assisted Keley Consulting, a company specializing in digital innovation, in setting up their offices at the Hiptown Bourse Grands Boulevards site .
550m2 entirely designed, fitted out and managed by Hiptown, to find out more go here =>