Martin Babinec, the owner of Rock City Centre, addresses the ‘meet the neighbor’ crowd on the rooftop of the building.

by Dave Warner

Rock City Centre hosted a ‘meet the neighbors night’ on the roof of the brand new building at 690 East Main Street on Wednesday evening, giving people who live around the facility a chance to tour the building and hear what the future will be like from owner Martin Babinec.

Babinec stated, “We had this event to create some community in the neighborhood around Rock City Centre. We wanted to thank our neighbors for putting up with the disruption of the construction process.”

“Because we are going to be doing events and we want to be good neighbors, we wanted to review with our neighbors what our event intentions were and how we could remain good neighbors no matter what happens in this building,” he stated.

The event also showcased what Rock City Centre is about in order to help spread the word that they are seeking members to take advantage of the facility, not only for events but for working companies.

Dean Gaylord, the building manager for the facility stated, “We’re looking for small teams of remote professionals, and freelancers. I think it’s crucial for us to be educating community members and people within the area about the services we have to offer and the memberships that are available.”

Gaylord says that one of the benefits of this kind of space is the collaboration that can happen within the facility. “Having multiple different organizations and professionals working in the same space together allows for some great networking opportunities.”

“Corporate members will make use of some of our conference room and event space to hold meetings. They could be local, or out of the area, as we are halfway between Albany and Syracuse. Occasionally companies from both cities will bring teams together from multiple locations and we expect Rock City Centre to be used for that purpose as well,” stated Babinec.

They are in the process of adding a high-end group video conferencing system to the building. “There is no good facility to do that in the local area. It’s another reason corporate members will take advantage of the facility,” he said.

Babinec said they are starting to use the term ‘office on demand’ to describe the model instead of co-working space. “What is unique about Rock City Centre is that a member can provision their workspace. Be it a workstation, a private office, or a conference room. They can provision what they want, on their app, when they want it.”

“That’s what’s unique about Rock City Centre compared to co-working spaces that you would typically find in a large city. It really hasn’t been available in the Mohawk Valley until now,” he said.

Babinec said that they won’t do a grand opening until some of the initial members are actually populating the building. “We have some special arrangements for those that want to become charter members of the facility,” he said.

To schedule a tour, or to sign up as a member, visit rockcitycentre.com