Baton Rouge-based software development firm Envoc nearly doubled its office space on Saturday by expanding into a 4,000-square-foot location above VooDoo BBQ in Perkins Rowe.
For about the past three years, Envoc has been in a 2,400-square-foot space in the mixed-use development at Bluebonnet Boulevard and Perkins Road. Envoc President Calvin Fabre says the expansion comes after a year of rapid expansion due to strong sales. Already this year, Fabre says, the 13-year-old company has expanded its employee count by about one-third with eight new hires. Fabre says the office expansion was needed to accommodate the new staff members, adding the move also allows for a more desirable work atmosphere.
“We want it to look more like Pixar or Google-esque, rather than just an old HR building,” says Fabre, whose company was named the No. 4 Best Place to Work in Baton Rouge last year, as featured in Business Report. “We wanted a space that was more in line with our business. More modern and hip. It was just walls and ceiling, cold space we could model how we wanted.”
To achieve the atmosphere Fabre envisioned, Envoc hired an interior designer who modeled the new space after the company’s “Work, Play, Think” page on its website. Employees have adjustable standing desks and areas to think creatively. It resembles Envoc’s smaller office in Hammond, where the walls are painted bright green, Fabre says.
Envoc now has about 30 employees, split between its Baton Rouge and Hammond locations, and the firm recently hired a new office manager. The recent growth in sales and employees was largely due to the success of Envoc’s tablet-based inspection app, Spotter, which can be used safely inside industrial plants and allows for more accurate recording of information, Fabre says.
As Daily Report recently reported, the Texas-based investment firm that acquired Perkins Rowe about 18 months ago—and spent untold millions on improvements to the mixed-use development—is putting the property on the market. A potential sale is not expected to have a major impact on tenants.
—Deanna Narveson
