“They said, ‘If you want people to work in a silo, shove them into a silo on their way to work.’” “They were actually pressing us much farther than we wanted to go,” Naratil told Bloomberg. WeWork suggested the bank add a staircase that would invite clients and employees to come up to the second floor together, where there’d be the juice bar and a coffee stand. Currently, UBS’ entrance looks like other banks, where clients and employees use different elevators and are in different parts of the building, partly for security reasons. “I don’t want to say ‘make work fun,’ because that sounds a little ridiculous, but something that makes it more of an enjoyable experience.”Īlthough UBS chose WeWork because it wanted fresh ideas for its more than 100,000 square feet space, the companies’ styles have clashed at times. “What can we do to help make that more of a communal atmosphere?” said Tom Naratil, co-president of global wealth management at UBS. WeWork’s promise to make UBS’ workspace a more friendly and lively environment for its employees intrigued the bank. Neither company has commented on the agreement terms. The UBS construction is expected to begin in the middle of next year. The business also allows WeWork to be less reliant on expensive office leases and instead it can help redesign and run spaces its customers already have. Powered by We generated $13.7 million in revenue in 2017 after $12.7 million in construction costs, per documents Bloomberg viewed related to WeWork’s bond sale. WeWork declined to name Powered by We’s other customers, but people familiar with agreements said another is Expedia Group, Inc.’s office in Chicago, according to Bloomberg. The company currently has 30 customers and 11 spaces in use, including an office for Standard Chartered Plc in Hong Kong.
Powered by We started last year to offer large businesses design and office management expertise.
The deal is the biggest in terms of revenue for WeWork’s Powered by We business, according to the company. When approached with the opportunity, WeWork presented UBS with a clear vision that included the need for a juice bar, meditation room and much more greenery. UBS Group AG recently hired shared office space operator WeWork to redesign its 30-year old wealth management office in Weehawken, NJ, writes Bloomberg’s Ellen Huet.
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