A little talked-about fact found in WeWork’s pre-IPO filing is that the company jams more people into its workspaces than any other commercial landlord.
For example, in London, WeWork provides provides half of the 8-to-10 square meters per person that is recommended by the British Council for Offices industry association.
To put it in perspective, the company recently opened the world’s largest coworking facility in the Waterloo district. The space has a 6,414 person capacity, which would allow 4.1 square meters per person according to the calculations above.
Currently, the 40 million square feet WeWork has in their pipeline has a capacity of 724,000 workstations, or 5.1 square meters each. In comparison, IWG’s Regus has about 12 square meters per workstation according to its annual 2018 report.
WeWork offers numerous common areas, which provides some relief from what could seem like cramped workstations.
“When members join WeWork, in addition to their private office they have access to our diverse array of common areas, including shared seating and workspace areas, conference rooms, pantries, and more,” said a WeWork spokeswoman.
