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Portland has become a hotbed of small startups and technology firms, causing office vacancy rates in the Central Business District to fall to about 10 percent, according to data recently released by Jones Lang LaSalle.

That trend led commercial real estate broker Alex Hughes and his business partner Jeff Arthur to think of creative ways to provide office space to burgeoning companies.

鈥淲e were thinking about doing something more traditional,鈥� Hughes said. 鈥淲e started looking for long-term tenants, but everyone was requesting short-term leases.鈥�

Hughes and Arthur approached the owner of the former General Electric building, at 1355 N.W. Everett St., and told him about their vision of creating a collective office space with a mix of small and medium-size private offices and common areas for tenants to share.

鈥淗e told us to put our money where our mouth is,鈥� Hughes said.

The building is being renovated to include about 22,000 square feet of flexible office space with 60 private offices and 50 desks in the common areas. The space, called , is scheduled to open in mid-November, Hughes said.

Tenants pay a monthly membership fee to gain access to the building. Member businesses are provided fully furnished offices, lounge areas, a conference room, a private rental space and an on-site 鈥渃ommunity manager鈥� to make reservations, take calls and act as a receptionist.

鈥淚t will be us taking care of all the logistics and mechanics so members can focus on doing their work,鈥� Hughes said.

CENTRL Office’s location in the Pearl District should draw a mix of tenants that work well together, Hughes said. Tenants could range from attorneys and accountants to design firms and tech companies.

鈥淲e’re trying to curate a mix of tenants who can work well together,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’re not going to focus on having tenants from just one industry.鈥�

As of early October, CENTRL Office had signed agreements with eight companies 鈥� a total of 30 to 40 people, Hughes said.

Brad Malsin of Beam Development said his company saw the need to offer short-term leases to startups. That allows them room to grow and drops the amount of square footage needed by over half, he said.

鈥淚n a traditional office setting one worker needs between 200 and 250 square feet of space,鈥� he said. 鈥淲ith this type of office space one worker only needs about 80 square feet.鈥�

Malsin said startups find the flexibility in leasing options attractive because they can grow and contract based on the amount of their production.

鈥淲e tell people if they sign a lease we’ll let them out of it to allow for growth,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f they need more space we’ll move them to a different setting, and pay for (the move).鈥�

, another Portland cooperative office space, was started in 2011 by Alex Linsker. He previously opened two similar spaces in New York City and felt a similar space would work well in Portland.

鈥淭he people who work here love being around other people,鈥� he said. 鈥淎bout half of our members are self-employed, and this is a way to be out of the house and working.鈥�

When Mozilla opened its Portland office last year, it first rented space from Collective Agency, Linsker said. Of its tenants, about half work remotely for companies while the other half are based in Portland.

A little over half of the 5,000-square-foot office space is common space, with conference rooms of varying size available to tenants.

He calls the atmosphere at Collective Agency 鈥渆nergizing yet grounding鈥� and says tenants often work together.

鈥淧eople like the variety,鈥� he said. 鈥淗aving others around helps creativity. I’ve saved myself several days’ worth of work just by asking someone else here a question I would have had to find the answer to on my own.鈥�