CRE Startup Wants Modular Pods To Stop The Office Build-Out Cycle

A Houston-based entrepreneur says he can save landlords time and money by eliminating the need to build out office space for a tenant, only to have it rendered useless when they leave. He just needs to get his solution into more of their hands.

ClarityCastle is a brand of modular office pods created by Seth Eslami, a commercial property management executive who said he’s seen the same problem repeatedly throughout his 20 years in the industry.

“It kills me when a tenant moves out, and I have to go back and spend another $30, $40 per foot to do a new build-out,” Eslami said in an interview with Bisnow. 

“It’s like we just spent $200K in here, and we have to go pay somebody to destroy this and throw it away and build it all over again. What a waste.” 

ClarityCastle’s solution is modular pods, ranging in size from 3-foot-by-6-foot private phone booths to soundproof pods measuring eight and a half feet on each side that can serve as private offices or conference rooms.

The pods’ modular nature means they can be broken down into pieces for transportation then installed quickly, typically in less than two hours. They are held in place magnetically, Eslami said.

While this isn’t the first modular office pod concept, Eslami said he has kept his operations extremely lean to offer the product at an affordable price for noninstitutional landlords and tenants. The “entry-level” pods start at $3K and go up to $6K, while premium pods start at $12K. Leasing is also an option. 

Eslami started the company in 2023 but struggled to get it off the ground without inventory or proof of concept, he said. But last month, ClarityCastle installed the last of 10 pods in the office of Greentown Labs, a climate tech innovation hub at 4200 San Jacinto St. in Midtown Houston’s Ion District. 

Greentown was able to quickly lease out all the pods to other tenants. The pods helped transform a former supermarket storage room into a flex office space, said Lawson Gow, head of Houston for Greentown Labs. 

ClarityCastle was an alternative option to building out the former supermarket with traditional office space, which would have taken at least nine months, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and blocked out most of the natural light, said Gow, who is also the founder of The Cannon, a Houston-based coworking provider with seven locations throughout the metro. 

“[ClarityCastle] gets these up and built in like a day,” Gow said. “It's just a no-brainer, and there's a lot of macro trends that are working in ClarityCastle's favor.” 

Those trends include the rising cost of construction, especially for high-end office space, and the increased interest in adaptive reuse of existing buildings, he said. 

ClarityCastle’s pods help Greentown generate rental revenue it otherwise wouldn’t have. But Greentown is a tenant itself. Eslami said he’s seen more success with tenants so far, but he’s hoping to capture more interest from landlords.

Some landlords may be hesitant to invest in a product that could make it easier for tenants to pack up and leave without making a long-term commitment to an office space.

“It’s the nature of the coworking and shared, private office space. You’re just going to see lower retention, unfortunately, relative to what you’d see in a traditional office space,” said Monte Lippert, senior vice president of The Wharf, a mixed-use development in Washington, D.C., which leases two floors of office space to a coworking operator.

While not looking to expand its coworking space, flex office fills a need at The Wharf, especially for growing startups. They may grow out of the coworking space, but Lippert sees that as a logical transition.

“Hopefully, we're able to meet the moment, but the companies that do well grow and potentially take a smaller suite and lease here at The Wharf,” he said. “It’s a nice addition, having flex office and traditional office.” 

The Wharf considered another brand’s modular office pods for its coworking space several years ago, as they would help meet the need for demand for office space for one to six people, he said. But they ultimately determined the price was too high and it would take too long to get a return on its investment, he said, recalling that the prices were “well into the five figures.” 

That’s where Eslami said landlords should see the benefit of ClarityCastle. They’re priced affordably, can be financed, and help landlords avoid the costs that come with a traditional tenant build-out, he said.

“In an office, when a tenant changes and they don’t want it, it ends up in the trash,” Eslami said. “I can get this [pod] five years from now and fully remodel it.” 

The pods are customizable with exterior PVC wrap, and users can customize their lighting and climate to their preferences. The pods’ lights, air conditioning and wrap can all be replaced for them to look new, Eslami said. 

And if Greentown Houston moves, it can take its pods with it, Director Kelsey Kearns said. Staff at Greentown’s Boston location saw pictures of the pods in Houston and requested 15 for its location, Gow said.

“It’s everything you would want in a creative, cleantech incubator space,” he said.

The pods hold value and can be moved, sold, leased or donated, Eslami said. Though it was a slow start, he’s confident in the long-term success of ClarityCastle. 

“It kind of changes the whole office concept from being a project to an asset,” Eslami said.