Corporate America Grips Tools In Flex Space Adoption

NEW YORK CITY – What is known as the WeWork phenomenon, where companies have essentially adopted flex space and layered on amenity offerings, has become far-reaching, beyond start-ups to corporate America, Michael Beckerman, CEO of CREtech, a global real estate tech-focused media, event and advisory platform, tells GlobeSt.com.

Co-working companies have served as a model for corporate firms, who desire to offer flex office space to their workforce that spans different cities and countries, according to Beckerman. “The WeWork phenomenon has brought so much attention to co-working and gave corporate America comfort tools to adopt flex-space,” he said.

These companies are leasing up square footage in office buildings outside or their headquartered market to accommodate their remote and mobile workers, and are launching their own version to backfill dead space.

And on the landlord front in curating and attracting corporate tenants, leasees are not viewed as strictly tenants, but as customers occupying an activated space, which was influenced by WeWork’s beer-on-tap offerings and other amenities that changed end-user engagement in the built environment. Now tenants and customers have the expectation of an ‘experience,’ according to Beckerman. “Now CRE is looked at as hospitality, WeWork has brought awareness to this,” he said.

Big commercial landlords, such as Hines and Tishman Speyer, saw an opportunity in the flexible office space sector, launching their own brands and adopting flex-space layouts in their properties, according to a recent GlobeSt.com article.

“Everybody is either spinning up their own brands, buying a company, spinning out their own brand or partnering with any operator that’s not named WeWork,” Zach Aarons, partner at proptech venture capital fund MetaProp, told GlobeSt.com.“There is a flurry of activity.”