WeWork Cos. agreed to lease the entire China Overseas International Center building in Shanghai's Huangpu district, marking the region's biggest single premium office leasing deal in 2017.
The co-working giant signed on for approximately 290,000 square feet of space in the newly built property owned by China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. It will be the co-working space provider's largest office in the Asia-Pacific region.
Eddie Ng, managing director of JLL Shanghai & East China, said the deal shows the region's rising demand for flexible work space, and the appeal of these innovative office strategies to a growing number of large corporations.
The New York-based co-working space provider opened its first location in China in July 2016, and has nine locations in Beijing and Shanghai with about 10,000 members. In late July, a Chinese vehicle was set up by Hony Capital and Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. to support WeWork's planned expansion in the country, with the two committing an investment of US$500 million. Nearly a month after, Softbank said it will pour in US$4.4 billion into the co-working space operator to accelerate expanding its global footprint.
