A co-working company started by a former WeWork executive signed a lease for the shuttered Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, just around the corner from a WeWork outpost.
Connecticut-based Work Well Win — say that fast five times — will take over 20,000 square feet on the top two floors of the three-story building at 1201 Third Street Promenade, CoStar reported. The art-deco building is at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard.
Restaurants and other food service tenants are reportedly in talks to rent the ground floor of the building, which the bookstore chain vacated just three months ago, according to the report.
The company was founded by former WeWork head of domestic development, Frank Bistrian. As its names suggests, wellness is a focus of its business. Its spaces have purified air and rooms for yoga and meditation. Bistrian told Quartz the business is marketed toward “Series B” companies more established than the startups that make up WeWork’s core clientele. He wants half of all Work Well Win clients to be Fortune 500 companies.
The firm operates one space in Greenwich, Connecticut, but has plans to expand into Venice Beach, New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Austin. Bistrian told Quartz he wants to open 90 locations by 2023. He left WeWork in 2016.
Work Well Win joins a handful of other smaller co-working firms in Santa Monica that are competing with giants like WeWork (with two locations) and Regus’ Spaces outfit. [CoStar] — Dennis Lynch