The motto of Divvy Desk, across Courtland Street from the Bulloch County Courthouse, is “Divide & Conquer,” but the co-working space continues to bring people from different small, usually creative businesses together in one office suite.

Now a few of the tenant businesses will have private offices along a hallway beside the original, shared open area of rentable desks. Statesboro digital filmmaker Justin Peay, who launched Divvy Desk in February 2018, bought a neighboring storefront, previously a bank’s temporary loan office, this summer and expanded Divvy Desk.

After launching the shared-office enterprise with just 600 square feet of space for himself and a few “digital creative” friends as co-tenants, he had originally planned for 550 feet of construction in back. But by the time these plans were approved, Colony Bank was ready to move to its full-service branch at Springhill Drive, off the bypass.

Former Colony

So instead of building, Peay purchased Colony’s 1,100 square feet on Courtland and more than doubled Divvy Desk’s footprint. He brought in several contractors who have renovated the addition as four rentable private offices plus a conference room for Divvy Desk tenants in the back and a “phone room” in the front corner.

“That’s for people who are in the open-air space, if they get a phone call or a Skype face-time call and they want some privacy, they can just go into this little booth, take the phone call and not be disturbed,” Peay said.

This, he said, addresses one of the biggest concerns creatives and professionals have about co-working spaces, how to have needed privacy while sharing communal space.

“So you just give people options, places to go, instead of forcing them to be in an open area,” Peay said.

The original, open-office area at Divvy Desk contains eight individual workspaces, including six desk chairs at three long, table-like desks facing the front window and two spaces at a stand-up desk along the wall.

Pioneer Design owner Sean Fox, who previously worked with Peay at a local church, helped him develop the idea of a co-working enterprise and became one of Divvy Desk’s first tenants. Lately, Fox has been working at Divvy Desk’s stand-up desk. But now he will move to one of the private offices in the addition.

So will Mandy Edwards, whose ME Marketing Services was a homebased business until she moved into the common area at Divvy Desk in fall 2018.

Josh Masters, a real estate agent, has rented the third private office.

So that leaves just one private office not already reserved, but the moves will free up several spaces for new tenants in the common area. Fox and Edwards both have employees who work from spaces at Divvy Desk, too.

Desk members pay $250 a month for 24-seven access. Unoccupied spaces in the common area can also be rented at a day rate, $20 a day. Private office members will be paying $450 a month. Even the day renters get printer and WiFi access.

Divvy Snax

For a year now, Divvy Desk has also been offering a Divvy Snax service, with snacks and work-appropriate beverages available from freestanding metal shelving and small refrigerator. As suggested by a foldout sign on the sidewalk, the snacks are available for purchase by passers-by as well as Divvy Desk members.

Katie Page of Pioneer Design came up with the idea.

“There’s not a lot of places for people to get something to eat or drink around here unless they go to the gas station, at least snack-wise, so she had the great idea of just stocking some snacks in here, and so we get a lot of traffic from people going to court and even some of the locals, like the lawyers,” Peay said.

Divvy Desk contributes 10% of Divvy Snax sales to nonprofit organizations. From the first half of this year, $160 went to T.R.A.C., the Teen Reach Adventure Camps for foster youth, and this semester’s share will go to the United Way of Southeast Georgia, Page reports.

“Divvy Desk is a cool space too, so the space makes people want to come in,” she said.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.