New Ridgefield Venture Caters To Business People, And Their Kids

RIDGEFIELD, CT — By almost every indicator, those days of grabbing your briefcase, pecking the spouse on the cheek and racing off to work 9 to 5 in a cloth-walled cubicle somewhere are winding down. Inc Magazine says they're already dead. Upwork CEO Stephanie Kasriel says that remote work will be the norm within the next 10 years, as millennials, and whatever we decide to call the generation that follows them, take the management reins.

One Ridgefield couple is banking on it.

Kelsey Hubbard and her husband Topher Rollinson have just opened Recess Playworks at 66 Danbury Road, catering to the work-from-home parents of small children who still need professional office space for the occasional meeting, conference, or even podcast.

The idea for Recess Playworks "came from being a parent and trying to get work done," said Hubbard. "How do you do it?"

You start by knocking down the wall that divided the shuttered yoga studio and vitamin store on Danbury Road. Next you convert the former into the ultimate play/learning space for youngsters, and the latter into a modern office space complete with conference room, phone booths, and a chic lounge.

Simple, if you have the right skillsets. Hubbard's a former media exec whose resume includes "Business Week," "Money Talks," News 12 and "The Wall Street Journal." Rollinson is a designer and interior decorator, who says that "making spaces comfortable and beautiful" has been in his background for the past 30 years. The business model revolves around membership, but the couple makes all the facilities available for one-off use as well.

Day-office rental is not a new idea — companies Regus and WeWork have made them almost ubiquitous in any fair sized city — but day-office rentals where you can bring your kids is. Recess Playworks offers classes in movement, coding, and chess for older kids, and story time (with live animals) for the youngest. There is also an art studio available all day long, as well as that perennial favorite, a ball pit.

Sure, but what about the podcasts?

"When we got the space, this room presented itself as the perfect place to do it," Rollinson said, referring to the vault that was the centerpiece of the People's Bank that occupied the space before the yoga studio. "It's hip, it's cool, it's in an old safe with a big metal door and it's the right size for two or three people to go in and do an interview, or for somebody to do a voice-over, or record a vocal track if they're a musician. We also put a green screen in for anybody who wants to do a video production or animation."

And in the bank vault studio, soundproofing is not an issue.

Recess Playworks will have a "soft launch" the week of Feb. 10, following an open house on Feb. 9 from 1-3 p.m.