WeWork plans to open its ninth Chicago location at 222 South Riverside Plaza, taking 60,000 square feet across two floors in the DWS-owned office tower.
The New York-based company, now valued at $45 billion after a $3 billion investment from Softbank last month, plans to add 1,100 desks in the 35-story building anchored by Fifth Third Bank, WeWork announced Tuesday. It’s the third new Chicago location for the co-working giant this year.
The offices will overlook Union Station, where Riverside Investment & Development and Convexity are planning an $800 million redevelopment including a new 1.5-million-square-foot office tower.
WeWork made the announcement just a month after opening its previous two expansions, which combine for 200,000 square feet in buildings owned by Beacon Capital Partners at 515 North State Street and 330 North Wabash Avenue in River North.
The company also added a sixth floor this year to its lease at 20 West Kinzie Street, padding its largest location in the city. Its previous expansion in April 2017 saw the addition of a new Loop site at 100 South State Street.
Co-working tenants now combine for about 2 percent of Chicago’s office market, having tripled their footprint since 2014, according to a July report from Colliers International. WeWork, the city’s largest co-working tenant, owned about 23 percent of the city’s co-working space as of July, according to the report.
WeWork’s occupancy rate across its 283 worldwide locations hit 82 percent during the first quarter of 2018, with the company doubling both its membership and revenue year over year.
The new location is set to open in mid-2019, a WeWork spokesperson said.