Innsbrook flex-office company sold after 35-year run

4860 Cox Road in Innsbrook, where flex-office company Business Center International is located. (Jack Jacobs photo)

Whereas Wi-Fi and beer on tap are obligatory at today’s coworking venues, fax machines were the amenity du jour back when Ali Abbasi and his wife founded the Business Center International in 1988, leasing rentable offices and meeting rooms to other companies in Innsbrook.

And just as faxes have come and gone, a few more changes are on the horizon for BCI,  as the Abbasis recently sold the business after 35 years.

Eric Hinkle of Norfolk is BCI’s new owner after purchasing it for an undisclosed sum. He plans to renovate the company’s nearly 20,000-square-foot space at 4860 Cox Road, a project expected to be completed by the summer. He declined to share a project cost but said it would be a “substantial” investment.

Hinkle also said he’s interested in incorporating a few tweaks to the amenities offered to customers, though he expected to keep the traditional vibe of the long-running flexible office space, rather than stray too far into the lane of the industry’s coworking newcomers.

Eric Hinkle

“BCI has always been more of a Regus competitor. We have clients who came to us from Regus,” said Hinkle, referring to the global office-space provider. “My intention is to still always be closer to a Regus but shift it more toward a WeWork or Gather, bringing in some of those features like locally roasted coffee, for example.”

BCI has about 70 private offices and six meeting rooms in space it leases from building owner Highwoods Properties.

Hinkle declined to comment on the current occupancy rate or name users, but said clients include law, accounting, property management and financial services.

“We’re a more mature, professional environment,” he said.

Expansion plans might be in the company’s future as well under the new ownership. Though there aren’t firm plans yet, Hinkle said he would be open to additional locations of the concept, most likely in the Richmond region.

“After I get this year under my belt, next year I might look for opportunities to acquire another business or open another location,” he said.

Hinkle, 57, said he plans to make BCI his professional focus moving forward. The Norfolk resident also does business coaching and is a mentor at 757 Accelerate, a business accelerator in Norfolk.

He spent nearly a decade at Dominion Enterprises, a media and information services company, and finished his time there as director of business analytics in 2021. Prior to that he founded and operated a Virginia Beach cafe called Confetti Caffe & Gelato for five years, and has held leadership roles at other companies. He was on the lookout for a business-to-business concept to buy when he found a listing for a company that turned out to be Business Center International.

Ali and Ange Abbasi.

Abbasi and his wife, Angie, launched the company in a different location in Innsbrook with just seven offices in 1988.

The company moved again within the same area before it settled in its current location in 1997. It was then that Abbasi decided to go full time with the concept, and capped off 17 years as a nuclear engineer at Dominion Energy. He said made the career switch because he felt he wasn’t advancing quickly enough at Dominion.

“When we started, I was still working for Dominion. My wife was running it initially and I was helping after hours and on the weekends,” he said.

Abbasi said they decided to sell because they were ready to retire.

“It’s been a very nice business for us but the time has come to give it to someone younger and fresher,” Abbasi said. “We decided it was time to spend time with kids and grandkids and do some traveling.”

The deal with Hinkle closed in early February. Mike Metzger of Murphy Business Sales brokered the deal.

“We felt that (Hinkle) would be a good match,” Abbasi said. “We weren’t looking to sell for the sake of selling, we wanted our clients and staff to be taken care of.”