Rentals Grow as Office Furniture Adds Frills : Everything From Fancy Desks to Plants, Art Is Available

It was one of the worst high-rise fires downtown Los Angeles had ever seen and when the smoke stopped pouring from the First Interstate Tower on May 4, the city’s tallest building faced tens of millions of dollars in repairs. One person was killed and 40 were injured.

But even from such tragedy can come opportunity.

Immediate replacements were needed for hundreds of desks, chairs, tables and filing cabinets. Rather than buy the furniture, which could take weeks to arrive and might not be needed at temporary business locations for more than a few months, First Interstate and other building tenants did what more and more companies are doing these days. They rented.

“When First Interstate burned up, there was a tremendous demand for furniture,” said Frank Schad, vice president and co-owner of Crest Office Furniture. “We put a ton of furniture in that building,” which was reopened in September.

Catastrophes aside, renting office furniture and accessories doesn’t make sense for every business. But it is becoming an increasingly popular option for many, those in the industry say.

Once a company interested in renting rather than buying office furniture was sentenced to a no-frills world of metal desks and basic chairs. Nowadays, the selection is much broader.

Fancy marble-topped desks or mahogany conference tables, high-tech chairs or soft leather sofas can be found by the office furniture renter.

Complete Package Available

In fact, businesses can rent just about everything else that goes into an office. That includes all kinds of furniture, computers, paintings, sculptures, plants and even the employees.

And if arranging all that is too much trouble, a business person could rent a furnished office complete with secretary, reception area, photocopying machine, mail handling and coffee maker. All that is required is the briefcase-equipped executive.

The biggest demand for office rentals, however, is still for furniture, which amounts to a roughly $300-million business each year, according to the Furniture Rental Assn. of America, a Westerville, Ohio-based trade group representing dealers that rent and sell furniture for homes and offices. Rental of furniture for the home accounts for about $700 million annually, the group said.

“We’re not really talking about a substitute to buying,” said Gerry Casanova, a spokesman for the Furniture Rental Assn. “But at times it really makes more sense to rent than to buy.”

“The major Fortune 500 companies are not renting. They’re buying,” said Steven Silbert, president of Los Angeles-based Holtzman Office Furniture Co.

“But the entrepreneurs, the companies that are start-ups, the companies that are $1 million to $10 million (in sales)--there is a huge market there and it’s going to continue to grow,” he said.

Breuners Furniture Rental, the largest office furniture rental firm in California, rents to small companies that are getting established, large companies that want to open a branch office or gear up for a new, temporary contract, and “there’s lots in between,” said Gene Bengtson, senior vice president and general manager.

Frees Up Capital

“I think it’s becoming more of an alternative for the business community because of the cost,” Bengtson said. “The basic rule is to spend as little as you can until the concept is worked out.”

Businesses, particularly small ones, can free up much-needed capital by renting initially, the Furniture Rental Assn. said. Many such firms eventually buy furniture once they’ve become established.

Companies can test out a furniture style before they buy or they can use rented furniture as a temporary measure while they wait several weeks for their custom furniture to arrive, the group said.

Furniture rental has been resistant to business cycles, Schad said, because in good times companies opening offices need to rent furniture and in bad times investment-leery companies would rather rent than tie up money in purchased furniture.

For the last several years, “it’s been fairly decent times,” said Schad, whose company primarily sells furniture but also does a brisk rental business.

Once the furniture is in place, companies can spruce up their offices with accessories such as lighting, art and plants--some of which can be rented.

Carl Olsefsky and his wife, Janet, have been renting and selling plants to businesses for eight years. Their seven-employee Northridge company, Greenhouse Interior Plantscapes, then maintains the plants on a weekly basis.

“Nowadays it’s a very big business,” Olsefsky said, adding that many similar companies have sprouted during the last few years.

Short-Term Needs

“People want to bring the outdoors in,” he said. “There have been studies that (show) productivity is much better with the addition of plants.”

Greenhouse Interior Plantscapes has about 150 clients all over Los Angeles, Olsefsky said. “A lot of these companies go in and out or they need to move to a larger facility” and don’t need plants for a long period, he said.

To satisfy their aesthetic side, businesses can rent various kinds of artwork and antiques, some from office furniture dealers and some from specialized firms and galleries.

For example, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art runs a rental gallery of emerging Southern California artists. After becoming a museum member, businesses and individuals can rent art for bimonthly rates ranging from $23.37 to $117.50.

Rental fees are based on the value of the work, which can range from $450 to $5,000, and 75% of the rental charges can be applied toward purchase of the art, said Alice Lainer, head of the museum’s rental division. The gallery, which is open Wednesday through Saturday, will rent only to the principal of the company, not to a secretary or designer or decorator, she said.

The business renters include small doctors or lawyers offices as well as large companies, Lainer said--”some of them have $40,000 collections.” The gallery, known formally as the Art Museum Council Art Rental & Sales Gallery, works with clients to help them pick out and display the art for their offices, she said.

Business people have to think carefully about whether renting is right for them, Silbert said. Holtzman Office Furniture will often do studies for clients to help them figure out what is the best option, he said.

Used in Movie Sets

Businesses might be wiser to buy rather than rent some accessories, including such relatively big ticket items as Oriental rugs.

“It’s much better off for them to buy the rug” unless the rental is for a short period, said Abraham Moradzadeeh, owner of Abraham’s Oriental & Persian Rugs on La Cienega Boulevard.

Moradzadeeh said he does a brisk rental business with television and motion picture productions looking for rugs to spruce up their sets for a few weeks.

After a certain period, renting plants becomes much more expensive than buying, Olsefsky said. “After nine months, they’re paying over and over for the plants,” he said.

Renting of all sorts of equipment can easily turn into buying, particularly for office furniture that a client has grown comfortable with, furniture dealers said. In such cases, reduced purchase prices usually are negotiated.