WeWork is to open the largest co-working space in the world at Almacantar’s Two Southbank Place, SE1.
The New York-based company, which is valued at $17bn (£13.2bn), has agreed to take more than 280,000 sq ft at the building, representing the largest London leasing deal this year.
The building is part of the £1.3bn redevelopment of the former Shell Centre close to Waterloo station. Almacantar bought the site for the Two Southbank Place and One Southbank Place for £550m from Braeburn Estates, a joint venture between Canary Wharf and Qatari Diar.
Combined with the 250,000 sq ft pre-let to Shell at One Southbank Place, Almacantar has now fully pre-let the office space at Southbank Place, a year ahead of completion. The two buildings will together make up a 1.4m sq ft mixed-use development.
WeWork has 15,000 members in London across 14 buildings, with another four due to open this year. At the South Bank, the hub will include more technical offerings than usual, such as 3D printers, laser cutters and machinery needed to develop product prototypes.
Almacantar chief executive Mike Hussey said: “A cross-section of London’s office occupiers are adopting the co-working model as a way of managing costs and generating new business simultaneously. It is a growing part of the office letting scene and will get more popular as better and larger facilities open in accessible locations such as Waterloo.”
Eugen Miropolski, managing director of WeWork Europe & Israel, said: “London represents one of WeWork’s most vibrant communities in the world, and, in a show of strength and commitment to our second-largest market, we are announcing our largest location worldwide here in London.”
He added: “This new location will be a base for UK businesses as they grow, foreign companies that want to come to the UK, and major corporates seeking to integrate into our innovative community.”
CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield advised Almacantar.
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