The biggest player in Chicago co-working is getting bigger. Shared-office titan WeWork signed a lease for more than 60,000 square feet on two floors at 222 S. Riverside Plaza next to the Union Station headhouse, the company confirmed. The West Loop location will open next year as the New York-based company's ninth in downtown Chicago and bring its total footprint in the city to around 650,000 square feet. That's the most among the dozens of providers that collectively have about 2.2 million square feet of co-working space active or in the works downtown, according to data from brokerage Newmark Knight Frank. WeWork has led a stampede of shared-office providers leasing space downtown and luring both entrepreneurs and big corporations to low-risk, flexible workspace. Some landlords have used co-working to help fill leasing gaps before the next downturn, while others have been wary of the sector and are skeptical of how co-working providers will fare when the economy softens. WeWork's deal on the 15th and 16th floors at 222 S. Riverside is with a venture of Frankfurt, Germany-based DWS—formerly Deutsche Bank Asset & Wealth Management—which bought the 35-story property in 2014. The lease could signal a new cluster of WeWork locations in the city, if its expansion downtown thus far is any indication. The company has opened multiple locations within a few blocks of each other in River North and the Loop with a strategy of creating an "ecosystem" of spaces that appeal to lots of different types of companies, WeWork Chief Real Estate Development Officer Granit Gjonbalaj told Crain's in September. It's unclear whether it will take the same approach in the West Loop, but there is plenty of opportunity for the company to do so. At the Old Main Post Office a block south of the new WeWork location, New York-based developer 601W is hungry for tenants as it turns the mammoth property into a 2.8 million-square-foot modern office building. 601W also is trying to revamp the mostly vacant office building at 550 W. Jackson Blvd. immediately west of Union Station. Just north of the new WeWork building, a big block of space is on track to open up as Lincolnshire-based technology products company CDW prepares to move its downtown office at 120 S. Riverside Plaza to the new office building at 625 W. Adams St. The new WeWork location will have more than 1,100 desks and "will give members beautifully designed workspace, great amenities and ample transportation options," WeWork Midwest General Manager Megan Dodds said in a statement. WeWork will be the fourth-largest tenant at the 1.3 million-square-foot riverside tower, which is 93 percent leased today, according to real estate information company CoStar Group. That's higher than the 87 percent average for downtown office buildings, according to brokerage CBRE. The tower was 86 percent leased when the Deutsche Bank venture bought the building. Its largest tenant is Fifth Third Bank, at 144,000 square feet, according to CoStar. A DWS spokeswoman declined to comment on the WeWork deal. More: World's biggest companies plan to get down with WeWork effect Co-working firms expanding downtown
WeWork has signed a lease for over 2000 sq ft at 222 South Riverside Drive in downtown Chicago , Illinois . The new facility , the company 's ninth in the city , with capacity for 1,100 , will open next year , taking the co - working group 's total portfolio to around 650,000 sq ft .