Hybrid Work Fuels WeWork Comeback
WeWork: How the $3.5B Flex Space Giant is Engineering A Comeback
Remote work does not eliminate offices, it breaks the old one lease, one headquarters model and shifts demand toward space that can expand, shrink, or move with the team. That favors operators like WeWork because companies can sign one agreement for desks, suites, or overflow space across many locations instead of locking into a 10 year lease for a single building. Enterprise demand already reflected this shift in 2020 and 2021.
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The practical use case is hybrid work. Employees still want office time for meetings, training, and coordination, but not five days at the same central office. Gensler survey data in the research showed 81% wanted to return at least part time, which supports a hub and spoke model rather than full remote.
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This matters most for big companies, not just freelancers. WeWork leased 3.5 million square feet to enterprise customers during the pandemic, and enterprise memberships rose from 25% of total memberships in 2017 to 60% in 2020, giving WeWork longer commitments and better payment reliability.
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Flexible space was still a small share of the office market, only 3% to 5% of US office footprint in the 2020 analysis, which is why even a modest shift in corporate real estate strategy could create outsized growth. Later research also framed WeWork as better positioned than traditional landlords in hybrid work because of its global footprint and on demand products like All Access.
Going forward, the winners in office real estate are likely to look less like landlords and more like operators and networks. If hybrid work remains standard, flexible workspace becomes a variable cost layer on top of the traditional office market, and WeWork’s opportunity is to be the default network companies use to manage that variability across cities and team sizes.