A NEW hot-desk hub has launched in Peeblesshire.

The shared office facility, based within the Old Cairns Gallery on Peebles High Street is available to rent daily. 

The gallery rooms have been renovated to form the shared workspace, now named the Peebles Office Exchange, and a separate small conference and meeting room is also available to rent daily for groups of up to 12 people.

The Art Deco building, located above the Bank Of Scotland, has been providing professional serviced offices since 2001 and current tenants include architects, financial advisers, as well as the Peeblesshire News. 

Previous tenants have been a mix of MSPs, geologists, and museum curators among others.

The Hot Desk service is new to the area and is a quickly-growing market throughout the UK.

Shared workspace can cost as little as £18 per day and provides facilities such as fast broadband, kitchen services, and professional reception to part-time home workers, remote professionals, and start-up individuals who may not want to invest in full private offices. 

Rentals can be on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Stuart Bell, responsible for economic development in the Borders, welcomed the new facility in Peebles. 

He said: “This is an exciting new direction as an incubation hub to encourage up and coming businesses.”

The building owner, Allan Bone, said: “This adaption is a move with the times and complements the existing serviced office facilities in both Chambers House and Portbrae House (the old police station) which accommodates formal offices, and artists’ studios in the old cells.

“The additional Cairns Room meeting space in Chambers House is very attractive and will continue to operate daily as an art exhibition area when not rented as a meeting room.”

To celebrate the opening of Peebles Office Exchange, two days of Hot-Desking are being offered free of charge as a testing ground to the first six people to fill out the contact information link on the new website.

For more details or to apply to use the facilities, visit: www.peeblesofficeexchange.co.uk/contact.

Include brief details of your profession and why you want to use the office.