WeWork Opens Three More SG Locations Adding 2,500 Desks

Global flexible workspace provider WeWork on Wednesday announced that it has opened three new locations in Singapore’s city centre. The trio of new flexible office facilities brings the $20 billion space providers number of centres in the city-state to a total of nine.

The new work hubs are located in Suntec Tower 5, City House, and 8 Cross Street — all grade A office buildings in Singapore’s city centre. Along with centres at 71 Robinson Road, 22 Cross Street and 60 Anson Road that the US-based co-working pioneer opened in the city during the second quarter of this year, WeWork has now opened six new flexible office locations in Southeast Asia’s wealthiest city since the beginning of this year.

Singapore, as Southeast Asia’s financial capital and the home of the region’s highest office rents, has become a primary battleground for global, regional and local co-working space providers. Earlier this week, Hong Kong-based co-working space provider Campfire announced that it has leased all 16 floors of a project in Singapore’s financial district for its first location in the city of 5.6 million people.

Opening Three Locations at Once

The three new locations in Singapore’s CBD added 2,500 desks to WeWork’s capacity in the city-state. WeWork Suntec City Tower 5 at 5 Temasek Boulevard provides 700 desks across the two floor facility, while the site at City House at 36 Robinson Road, just south of the Raffles Place financial hub offers 600 desks across four office floors. The 8 Cross Street location, less than one block from the Telok Ayer MRT station, is the biggest among the three and offers members 1,200 desks across four floors of space.

The location at Suntec Tower 5 is now designated as WeWork’s next flagship location in the city, and occupies the 17th and 18th floors of the building in Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust’s Suntec City commercial complex.

A hot desk at the Suntec Tower location is S$580 ($420) per month, 5.5 percent higher than S$550 in the 8 minute walk away Beach Centre location and 12 percent higher than the S$520 22 Cross Street, around 7 minute drive from the Suntec Tower.

Corporate Occupiers Dominate Singapore’s Flexible Offices

According to WeWork, it currently has 4,000 members in its nine Lion City locations providing homes for freelancers, startup teams, and big companies. Local player JustCo, which opened its first co-working centre in the city in 2015, now has 13 locations in the city, while IWG-owned Spaces has opened two locations centres.

Globally, enterprise-level occupiers of 1,000 staff or more account for 25 percent of WeWork’s members, however, in Singapore, employees of giant firms such as dataxu, elastic.co, Indeed.com, Nexmo make up 45 percent of WeWork’s 4,000 members in the country, according to the company’s statement.

Singapore Becomes Co-Working Magnet

Asia has become an increasingly competitive market for flexible working space providers, with Singapore becoming one of the region’s most magnetic locations. In 2017, flexible office providers grew their footprints in Singapore by 44 percent year on year to reach 680,000 square feet (63,174 square metres) by year-end, according to a report by Colliers International.

That total climbed even higher earlier this week when Hong Kong-based co-working provider Campfire announced that it has agreed to lease all 16 floors of 139 Cecil Street, half-way between Raffles Place and Tanjong Pagar MTR stations, for its first location in the city.

The 85,000 square foot project, which is scheduled to open in the third quarter next year, will be the 2.5-year-old company’s largest centre globally.

WeWork Accelerates Asia Expansion

WeWork’s Singapore expansion is paralleled by its growth in Asia’s largest financial centre — Hong Kong.

In the middle of last month, the New York-based firm opened its sixth location in the city, as well as its first location in Kowloon in Sun Hung Kai Properties’ Two Harbour Square office tower in Kwun Tong.

In addition to the Kowloon project, WeWork is looking to open more than 12 additional centres in Hong Kong within the next two years, according to the company, which says it already has two new Hong Kong locations set to launch by the middle of next year.

In China, the New York-based co-working giant is planning to open in Guangzhou and Wuhan site in late December or early January, a company spokesperson told Mingtiandi. According to Alan Ai, general manager of WeWork Greater China, the company is also looking for expansion opportunities in the Greater Bay Area of Southern China.