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US: John Santora, CEO of WeWork, has warned the flex industry’s growth is outpacing its own capacity to respond to demand.
Delivering a keynote speech at the Global Workspace Association (GWA) Conference, Santora, said: “When you look at all the surveys that are done, you’re seeing 20 to 30 per cent where corporate real estate will be flexible working environments. Back a few years, you either owned your building or you had a long-term lease — now it’s own, lease, or flex.”
“When we do the calculations, it’s going to be between 500 million and a billion square feet. Where’s all that going to come from? We’re not taking down the space as an industry fast enough to meet the demand,” he added.
Discussing his priorities for WeWork, Santora said: “Bringing credibility to the brand, rebuilding our reputation, and restructuring leadership to remove silos. WeWork was never a technology company. It’s a real estate company at its core. Every deal needs to show profits,” he said. “At any time we’re going to take space, we had to prove that it was needed and that it would be profitable in a very short period of time.”
He explained that WeWork’s new model focuses less on expansion and more on enterprise partnerships and demand-driven deals: “If the client’s looking for 50,000 square feet or 100,000 square feet and they’re willing to commit for two or three years, then we’ll begin that from a sublease or directly from the landlord and match the term to the client’s term.”
Highlights:
• John Santora, CEO of WeWork, has warned the flex industry’s growth is outpacing its own capacity to respond to demand
• We’re not taking down the space as an industry fast enough to meet the demand, said Santora
• He explained that WeWork’s new model focuses less on expansion and more on enterprise partnerships and demand-driven deals
