IFWorld Inc. Signs IBM Building Lease

IFWorld Inc. officially gave up waiting for Fayetteville to get its fiber park together in March of 2000. Now it has signed a three-year lease to move to the 4,500-SF Suite 250 of the IBM Building at 4058 N. College Ave. in Fayetteville. The suite is where the company got its start in 1994.

Flake & Kelley Management Inc. of Little Rock, which owns the IBM building, signed IFWorld to a $15 per SF deal that includes a $23,000 buildout allowance over the duration of the lease. It’s roughly the same cost IFWorld would have incurred at a new facility.

The space became available because of substantial downsizing at IBM.

IFWorld, which develops software and offers high-end e-commerce Web sites and provides businesses with Internet access and network support, had signed a deal in 1999 to become the Fayetteville fiber park’s first resident.

But IFWorld got about $140,000 — including $90,000 for its lot, interest on the mortgage, civil engineering fees, etc. — refunded in April when it became obvious the city’s fiber-laden fields near the Fulbright Expressway would not be developed.

IFWorld, the holding company for Interface Computer Center, will inherit IBM’s old server room, a valuable perk. IFWorld has added some Southwestern Bell fiber optic cable to make its service even faster when it moves Aug. 3.

IFWorld partners Jeremy Webb and Matt Romine worked at IBM as interns in 1993 and full-time in 1994. They started their own business part time while still at IBM.