Old Pasadena Tech Hub Readies for Opening

Pasadena will take a huge step towards becoming a stronger technology epicenter in California with the opening in early 2015 of the second location of Cross Campus, a company that rents out offices built specifically for techies and entrepreneurs.

Cross Campus’ Pasadena office is its largest. It encompasses some 16,000 square feet of usable space and three floors along 87 North Raymond Avenue near the Memorial Park Metro Station in Old Pasadena.

Cross Campus Old Pasadena could do for Pasadena what Cross Campus’ original office in Santa Monica did for Santa Monica: lure hundreds of techies and other creative persons and entrepreneurs to collaborate and do business in an environment conducive to productivity.

The Santa Monica campus is a hub for Los Angeles’ ongoing entrepreneurship boom. The same effect might be expected when the Old Pasadena campus opens.

“Pasadena has a pedigree and the people to be a leading entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is already home to world-class institutions such as Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, and Art Center College of Design,” said Ronen Olshansky, Cross Campus founder and CEO.

“With great public transit and a density of food, retail and entertainment options, Pasadena has the raw materials to grow and we’re excited to help catalyze this growth. Many of our current Westside members will be excited that we’re adding an Eastside component to our network”.

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard said Cross Campus’ expansion into Old Pasadena will have a positive economic impact and will generate even more business opportunities in this dynamic commercial district.

“I appreciate the effort … put into re-envisioning these buildings and I am grateful to Cross Campus for working with our Pasadena team. This is a win-win for everybody.”

Cross Campus Old Pasadena will be larger than the Santa Monica location. It will feature enterprise-class connectivity and audio/video capabilities and new elements tailored to the Pasadena market.

Members or tenants of Cross Campus Old Pasadena will have access to business support services as well as introductions to, and office hours with, other entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts.

The Old Pasadena campus will emphasize community and collaboration through “rich event programming and members-to-member engagement”. It will be set up to host speaking engagements, launch events, hackathons and workshops.

Olshansky said while Pasadena is an exciting market, Cross Campus needed to provide state of the art technology infrastructure to create the right business environment for member companies.

He said Cross Campus chose the Old Pasadena location because of real estate developer Rising Realty Partners (RRP) and 5×5 Telecom’s technological enhancements and amenities.

In November 2013, RRP and internet entrepreneur David Sacks acquired 87 North Raymond at Memorial Park Station, a three-building complex formerly known as “The Old Pasadena Plaza” that is now the site of Cross Campus. Constructed between 1895 and 1914, the site has multiple historical features.

RRP and Sacks commissioned communications technologies solutions provider, 5×5 Telecom, to rebrand the building and completely revamp its technological backbone.

5×5 Telecom’s technology at Cross Campus Old Pasadena includes a site-wide fiber backbone, fault-tolerant network redundancy, multiple ISP’s for carrier diversity and on-premises rack space.

All these elements aid in providing tenants fiber-to-the-suite speeds provisioned in as little as 24 hours. Wi-Fi coverage will allow tenants and the public to utilize Wi-Fi along Raymond and Holly Streets in the vicinity of the campus, including at Memorial Park across the street.

Cross Campus (http://www.crosscamp.us/) rents out its office space in packages. These packages include Private Offices (prices vary); Dedicated Workstation ($600/month); Collaborative Workspace ($350/month); Night + Weekend ($150/month) and Pay as You Go ($150/month).