Co-working business opens

First Choice Workspace in Wantage provides space for people and businesses that need an office.

The company, located in the Town Center at Wantage, 15 Boulder Hills Blvd., offers daily and monthly rentals of cubicle desks, private offices and conference rooms.

“It’s a co-working space for local businesses,” said John Maione Jr., one of the founders.

Membership plans, which start at $100 a month, are good for “somebody just working from home that wants an office setting from time to time or they need to meet a client on a particular day but they don’t need an office all the time,” he said.

The membership plans include access to the common areas, such as a conference room, two lounges and an office kitchen.

Memberships are month to month with no long-term commitment.

”If it doesn’t work for you, we don’t want you to feel locked in,” Maione said.

Other benefits are optional free marketing services as well as the opportunity to talk to other businesspeople using the space. “Members can bounce ideas off each other or us,” he said.

The building had one tenant when it opened. Then the economy changed. With more people working from home “and smaller businesses needing affordable places to operate their operations, we felt that this space could work well for this idea.”

The Maiones are real-estate developers, who have developed thousands of residential properties, more than 500,000 square feet of commercial and retail space throughout New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania, and a 50-acre solar farm, which powers all of Wantage and some of the surrounding areas,” according to the company’s website.

Training center

Stacie Ellis, a retired police officer and paramedic, is operating her business, JC Security & Training, at First Choice Workspace.

She said Sussex County residents used to have travel to Wayne or East Orange to get training. “I decided when I retired to open something up here in Sussex County.”

JC Security & Training offers training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillators and first aid; in 9-1-1 dispatching; in active shooter response; and training required to become a security officer in New Jersey.

The work of local artists is displayed in the Gallery at the Workspace, and some of the art is for sale.

Maione, who has created art since he was a teenager, said the gallery is open to all local artists. Any sales are arranged directly between the artists and their patrons.

”Just the creativity that it adds to the workspace and that energy is beneficial to any business or service owner.”