Ojai Racquet Club Plans Satellite Office Building

A satellite office building boasting offices as small as 100 square feet is being planned on the grounds of the Ojai Valley Racquet Club.

The building will enable business people who live in the Ojai area to keep in touch with their offices elsewhere, but avoid commuting part of the week, said Karl D. Pope, managing partner of the group that operates the club and is planning the new facility.

For rents as low as $300 a month, tenants of the building on Bryant Circle will be able to use facsimile machines, data processors and other electronic aids to work close to home, Pope said. “We’re even thinking of offering the tenants a discount on club memberships so they can take tennis breaks,” he added.

Pope said city and county planners have approved the concept, but architectural plans have not yet been drawn up for the $700,000, two-story building. He said he expects the structure to hold about 50 offices ranging in size from 100 to 300 square feet.

If all goes as planned, construction will start next year and the facility will open in the spring of 1994, Pope said. He said planning officials favored the concept because it will reduce traffic leading into Ojai.