Tenant Battles: WeWork Ups Pay for Brokers

DisruptCRE hosted a breakfast series of events in partnership with WeWork; TechstackCRE

A series of breakfast events hosted by DisruptCRE in partnership with WeWork focused on educational programming for CRE brokers to learn about what a modern broker Techstack should include. “WeWork is one of those tools that brokers should have in their back pocket as enterprise clients are diversifying their portfolios to include more flex space, satellite offices and coworking concepts” said Mariel Ebrahimi CEO DisruptCRE.

Attendees heard directly from members like Microsoft about the value prop having space within WeWork. Other speakers included local brokerage executives who discussed and debated some of the value of tech tools in the market now and what they’d like to see mature in the future.  Ebrahimi was quotes saying ” WeWork is on-point with this new broker incentive program which puts more boots on the ground to drive prospective tenants and long term relationships. In the past this would be viewed as competitive and now disruptive thinking creates collaborators.”
Firms will get greater compensation if they find and fill coworking space thanks to a an agreement signed by WeWorkCBRECushman & Wakefield and JLL in North America, Commercial Observer reports.

“WeWork is unique in that as we become more sales driven with our real estate approach we can partner with real estate firms on both sides—on the site selection and lease sourcing side and the client member introduction side,” Julia Davis, the head of transactions and analytics for WeWork, told CO. “We are hoping to leverage those relationships.”

Brokers of CBRE, C&W and JLL will receive a 20 percent fee for a one-year lease and 5 percent on renewals and expansions.

“WeWork will partner with these firms on a non-exclusive basis to source a set (i.e. agreed upon) square footage for WeWork locations in North America, and in return, the [commercial real estate] firms will introduce new clients to WeWork, leading to more closed sales and strengthened relationships,” according to bullet points WeWork provided to CO. Davis did not offer the square footage.