Work & Mother Services, Inc. (Work & Mother), a full-service lactation suite with an associated support resource, the HUB, announces today it has entered into an agreement with Jamestown to deliver commercial lactation suites as tenant amenities for two commercial office buildings in Boston, Massachusetts, and Arlington, Virginia, part of the Washington, D.C. market.
Work & Mother provides a high-quality, unique building amenity with the appropriate aesthetics that creates safe and healthy environments for nursing mothers while satisfying the legal obligations of tenants to provide private nursing accommodations. Its state-of-the-art suites are fully equipped with hospital-grade pumps, milk storage bags, cleaning and sanitizing supplies, and all other items to make the process comfortable and successful. In addition to the physical lactation suites, Work & Mother’s virtual resource center, the HUB, provides information and services specifically tailored to parents working both in and out of the home.
Jamestown’s 18 Tremont Street, set in the heart of historic Boston, includes over 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 12 floors of office space surrounded by views of the city. Its Ballston Exchange property, located in Arlington, Virginia, includes retail and office space that provides a hyper-connected, collaborative environment with building amenities that result in a dynamic and engaging workplace.
The partnership between Work & Mother and Jamestown comes on the heels of the recent bipartisan passing of the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act. Long overdue, this victory gives nursing parents more workplace rights and protections to express milk. The PUMP Act builds on the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which requires employers to provide a private space that is not a bathroom for employees to pump and expands protections to cover all breastfeeding employees in every industry for up to two years.
“We are focused on creating inclusive places that improve health and wellness and build community,” said Carrie Denning Jackson, Director of Innovation at Jamestown. “Work & Mother’s lactation suites promote a healthy work/life balance for working mothers and help create a more equitable workplace environment for our tenants.”
Data has shown that lactation suites not only help nursing mothers reach their breastfeeding goals, but the rewards are just as beneficial to tenants. This workplace amenity has been proven to improve retention rates and lower absenteeism among working parents, as children who are breastfed or nursed are less likely to get sick1. Furthermore, it alleviates the need for tenants to designate areas of their leased office spaces with lactation accommodations, as it is provided as a building-wide amenity available to all occupants, therefore satisfying their legal obligations to give working mothers nursing protections.
“Jamestown is proud to bring Work & Mother’s state-of-the-art lactation suite to our buildings and provide a differentiating amenity that will help our tenants meet their recruitment and retention goals,” says Greg McQuade, Senior Vice President of Asset Management. “Through this partnership, we are transforming underutilized space into a real value-add for tenants in our buildings. More importantly, we are ensuring that working mothers have access to necessary and comfortable nursing accommodations.”
“Work & Mother is excited to venture into this partnership with Jamestown, a real estate firm that looks at its properties from both an aesthetic lens and a futuristic one, providing tenants with those services and amenities it knows will have a positive impact on all building occupants,” says Abbey Donnell, Founder and CEO of Work & Mother. “We also commend Jamestown for understanding how important working mothers are to the American business landscape and doing its part to ensure more gender-equality options and supportive resources in the workforce.”
The Work & Mother suites at 18 Tremont and Ballston Exchange are expected to be complete by Summer 2023. To learn more, please visit workandmother.com.
Cohen R, Mrtek MB, Mrtek RG. Comparison of maternal absenteeism and infant illness rates among breast-feeding and formula-feeding women in two corporations. American Journal of Health Promotion. 1995; 10(2):148-53.
About Work & Mother:
Work & Mother is a full-service lactation suite amenity and associated app to support working parents. This new commercial building amenity makes it easy for tenants to outsource their mother’s rooms, satisfying legal obligations while also providing a better way to support working moms, ultimately supporting talent retention following maternity leave for tenant employees. Work & Mother Suites have everything needed to pump, including hospital-grade equipment, cleaning and sanitizing stations, refrigeration and storage, immediate community, and much more. The Work & Mother HUB puts additional support resources and health and wellness experts right at parents’ fingertips. By bringing professional lactation suites to the commercial office space, Work & Mother is fundamentally changing the landscape for working mothers, enabling them to succeed in both of their roles.
For additional information on Work & Mother, visit workandmother.com, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
About Jamestown
Jamestown is a global, design-focused real estate investment and management firm with a 40-year track record and mission to create places that inspire. Since its founding in 1983, Jamestown has executed transactions totaling approximately $40 billion. As of December 31, 2022, Jamestown has assets under management of $13.2 billion and a portfolio spanning key markets throughout the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. Jamestown employs more than 500 people worldwide with headquarters in Atlanta and Cologne, and offices in Amsterdam, Bogotá, Boston, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Current and previous projects include One Times Square and Chelsea Market in New York, Industry City in Brooklyn, Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, the Innovation and Design Buildings in Boston and Lisbon, and Groot Handelsgebouw in Rotterdam. For more information, visit www.jamestownlp.com.
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