Despite New York City’s depressed economy, there is a flurry of activity in at least one niche of the real estate industry: business center companies, also often known as executive suites.

Since the middle of last year, such companies - which rent out furnished office space on a short-term basis, offering services like a receptionist, mail delivery and telephone-call answering and screening - have opened new facilities in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan and in One and Five Penn Plaza, near Penn Station in Manhattan.

New York Times