CBRE, the world's largest commercial brokerage and real estate services company, is searching for space to house its newly launched coworking brand, Hana, and has recently entertained talks to open its first city location in the at 3 World Trade Center. CBRE announced late last year that it was entering the booming coworking sector to compete with a long list of fast-growing operators, including WeWork, Knotel and Regus. Since then, Hana has announced two locations nationally, a 67,000 square foot space in Dallas and a 60,000 square foot facility in Irvine, Calif. Both will be open by the end of the year, the firm said. More recently, CBRE has considered space at 3 WTC along with other locations in Manhattan, several sources familiar with the effort told Crain's. Hana was seeking to take two floors at 3 WTC, which would total around 100,000 square feet. No deal has been signed and sources said the talks were still preliminary. "I can't comment on the conversations we're having," a spokeswoman for Hana said. "We're having a variety of conversations across the globe with a focus on the U.S. and the U.K. Other than the two we have announced, I don't have any further specifics. But we're definitely intrigued and excited about the interest we have received." The negotiations are a sign that CBRE intends to push forward with its coworking brand on somewhat sensitive turf for the company. The city is one of the biggest markets for the $16 billion public firm and has proven a lynchpin of growth for WeWork, Knotel and other brands who have recently emerged as some of the city's largest commercial tenants. Some of those firms have vowed not to do business with CBRE if it progresses with its plans to create a coworking arm that would become a competitor. In a conversation with Crain's last year after the announcement of Hana, Amol Sarva, co-founder and CEO of Knotel, said he saw "no reason to give my business to CBRE." "If they want to open a shingle that competes with me, I can do business with other brokers," Sarva said. "They're not going to represent us." The exploding coworking sector has been seen as a growing threat to brokerage firms such as CBRE, which earns a significant portion of its revenue arranging leasing deals for office tenants. Coworking companies have increasingly sought to attract larger tenants and some leasing brokers fear a day when even major corporations will go directly to brands like WeWork for space, cutting out the need for leasing brokers altogether. Hana's launch was seen by some as a way to head off that eventuality and give CBRE a foothold in a vibrant area of the leasing market.
CBRE has reportedly held preliminary talks about taking 100,000 sq ft of space at 3 World Trade Center in New York for Hana, its newly launched co-working brand. The company is looking to expand into the US market and will be opening a new office building on 1 World Financial Center, which it plans to occupy by early next year.