Despite restructuring with staff and funding in recent months, WeWork is officially open in Tampa with plans to expand.
The embattled coworking space, which initially shot to popularity before having a stark decline among its CEO, staff and earnings in the last six months, is open in downtown Tampa. The now-renamed WeWork Place tower is located at 501 East Kennedy Boulevard.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor kicked off the company's ribbon cutting, along with members of the Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce.
"WeWork, in and of itself, allows so many other individuals who have a dream, who have a product, to come in and rent that space that they would be able to have otherwise," Castor said to a full room of people. "So they can come in and make that a reality, where in the past they have not had that opportunity. And the other end of it is a lot of large corporations are starting to turn to this type of shared workspace."
The company has been in the headlines in recent months for a slew of concerns: in September, it filed and then pulled an initial public offering which revealed the company lost $900 million in the first six months of 2019 alone. It has laid off thousands of employees nationwide, including in Florida. It most recently received a bailout from Softbank, which announced today it would be opening a $1.75 billion line of credit through Goldman Sachs that would be available to WeWork in January.
Bobby Condon, southeast general manager for WeWork, said the company will be shifting its focus to the currently open WeWorks and believes the company is still on a positive trajectory.
"If you’ve read the news, you'll see we’re being very thoughtful and strategic about our future growth," he said in an interview with Tampa Bay Inno. "And we see Tampa as a place that will continue to thrive and open some new locations. There's definitely been a lot of press in the last couple weeks. We feel very comfortable and confident in the future and direction of the company and everyone here in Tampa should be excited about our new communities and new locations to come."
He could not disclose the amount of members already signed up for WeWork, or a goal the company hopes to hit by the end of the year.
"We have an internal goal and metrics we don't typically disclose," Condon said. "But we feel very confident its going to fill quickly."
WeWork spans 52,515 square feet across the 14th and 15th floor in WeWork Place, with plans to complete the 16th floor by the summer. There are six conference rooms, 25 phone booths, 12 nooks, three lounges, three pantries, a new mother’s room and a quiet room. It will have an occupancy availability of 1,000 members when the third floor is complete. A second WeWork location has been announced to open in the Heights District near Armature Works in summer 2020.
WeWork is one of several coworking options that will be opening in the city in recent months: WorkHouse, HydeHouse, Industrious and Embarc Collective are within minutes of one another.
Condon told Castor the city's efficiency with permitting was the ticket to staying on track for the project.
"Macro trends are showing migration traits are first in the state and I believe fifth in the country in terms of population growth," he said. "The innovative and tech community is growing and prospering. We felt it was right to provide our global platform here for the local community, to allow those business to thrive, as well as people that want to bring companies to Tampa and give them a platform as well."
