A new venture will open on the York Business Park to provide more fully-serviced office space to small-medium businesses.

The plan to open Westminster Business Centre - a new office block split into eight suites on the Great North Way - has been welcomed by the York Inward investment Board which sees it as a lure to distant small-scale firms to move into the city.

The centrally-serviced offices will have an executive boardroom and communal reception area - and will be equipped with a high-tech phone system which will allow a receptionist to handle all calls in each individual company's name.

There will also be the usual modern office equipment available, including fax machine, photocopier, cabling and plans for broadband Internet access and IT and email server storage.

Matthew Tearney, managing director, whose wife, Sandra, is marketing director, predicts they will fill all eight offices within nine months.

He said: "We plan to start fitting out the first floor as soon as the ground floor is 50 per cent full and interest so far has been very encouraging. There seems to be a lack of quality office space available to people not wanting to take long leases and large amounts of space."

He said the building could be subdivided into 16 office suites, "although we could offer larger spaces on the first-floor should clients express an interest before the fit-out takes place."

Sandra Tierney, who, apart from her marketing function will be "front of house", answering phones, providing secretarial support and, in her words, "being customer service manager to boot" ran a similar business centre in Stockton.

She said: "I always believed the concept is a fantastic idea because it gives small companies an opportunity to take out small space but with access to facilities that might normally only be available to large corporates."

The boardroom, which can accommodate 12 people, will be available to hire to non-residents of the centre, if necessary, with buffet lunches provided.

Matthew said: "Because the monthly rental includes electricity, heating, lighting, quality furniture, cleaning, parking etc, our clients can free up their time to concentrate on their core business."

Dave Taylor, marketing director of York Inward Investment Board, welcomed the extra serviced accommodation in the city. He said: "Westminster Business Centre will be an asset both to indigenous companies and will attract small- scale inward investment to York."

Updated: 09:48 Tuesday, January 28, 2003