When business incubator Fuse SPC began in 2014, its whole concept was to offer a space to launch companies and programs to support them. That mission drove the organization about 10 years ago to buy its current home in a former credit union building in Richland’s Parkway shopping district.

Now Fuse is hoping the recent sale of the building to Boise-based office furniture retailer Freeform will further its mission by freeing up funding and bringing new energy into the space.

Freeform paid $2.3 million for the roughly 10,000-square-foot building at 723 The Parkway at the end of December, according to county property records.

Fuse isn’t going anywhere, and neither are the offices, meeting rooms and co-working spaces for the enterprises it supports.

Freeform will outfit offices as well as other spaces with some items it sells, and Fuse will use the proceeds of the building sale to fuel the resources, programming and events it offers.

“This is a real revitalization to the impact that Fuse can have,” said Brett Spooner, chairman of Fuse’s board of directors. “This frees us up to focus on our mission.”

Freeform officials said the plan is for its local offices to move to the building’s top floor by the end of February, with staff beginning to be on site in early March.

“In our other markets, we tend to be in downtown,” Fernando Jauretche, president of Freeform’s Inland Northwest operations, told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. “We want to be in a place that can engage with the community.”

An opportune time

The building changing hands comes at an opportune time for both parties.

Freeform has looked for a new space since it moved into the Tri-Cities market when it acquired Brutzman’s Office Solutions at 2501 N. Columbia Center Blvd. in Richland in 2023.

Freeform CEO Jeff Heath said the building is set up in some ways that don’t align with Freeform’s operations. The company’s status as a B corporation – a for-profit company that is certified as meeting standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency – also calls for it to be where it can be in the middle of business activity.

“I describe us as wanting to be in the hub of the community,” Heath said. “How can we help tie folks together?”

Meanwhile, Fuse was at a point where it was reassessing whether to continue ownership and serving as a landlord for the property or find a partner to take over the building and free up the organization’s bandwidth and funding.

“The biggest challenge for us is we’ve been largely operating on our revenues,” Spooner said. “So vacancies impact funding for our other goals.”

When Freeform and Fuse officials connected and began discussions, they said they saw a natural synergy between what each was looking for.

Freeform gains a presence in a community hub where it can connect with business owners while Fuse stays on as a tenant, along with the other businesses currently leasing offices, and can dedicate more time and energy to supporting ambitious entrepreneurs.

Fuse’s existing tenants will now lease space from Freeform.

Freeform investing in the building also may empower and improve Fuse’s efforts.

Heath said his company plans to outfit Fuse’s offices and co-working spaces as a sort of working showroom for its products. There’s a goal of using the building’s basement as a meeting space for Fuse’s networking events, which removes the distraction for those using the common co-working spaces.

“There’s a lot of alignment with Freeform. It’s a perfect fit far as I’m concerned,” Spooner said.

“Fuse being here is part of the attraction to us,” Jauretche said.