WeWork Branching Out to Facility Management for Enterprise Clients
JLL's Maureen Ehrenberg will lead WeWork's facility management initiative
By Nicholas Rizzi December 13, 2018 3:00 pm
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Coworking giant WeWork continues to push the growth of its service targeting big corporate clients and plans to offer facilities management for it, Commercial Observer has learned.
To spearhead the effort, WeWork has hired Maureen Ehrenberg, the former president of global integrated facilities management at JLL, to become its first global head of facilities management services, the company said.
“The opportunity to build facilities management for the future, it’s just so incredible,” Ehrenberg said. “It was just one of those opportunities that don’t come along often and I just could not resist.”
Ehrenberg, who started this week, will be focused on taking the existing facilities management services WeWork runs at its coworking locations and expanding them to target larger corporate clients apart of its Powered by We, which it has aggressively targeted to grow this year.
Powered by We is WeWork’s office consulting service for companies of 1,000 people or more to it manage the design and construction of office space. It made headlines in the summer when it nailed a deal to renovate the UBS’ 100,000-square-foot offices in Weehawken, N.J. It currently has more than 1,700 clients in seven countries and its team is working on more than 35 projects, the company said. It makes up 29 percent of WeWork’s membership numbers.
The new facilities management service will extend Powered by We to when tenants move in and be available to companies who lease or own spaces. WeWork plans to use data and technology to “deliver a really productive, highly utilized workplace” so that employees will have “less downtime and less wasted time looking for a conference room,” Ehrenberg said.
“It allows us to offer space as a service experience and collect really meaningful data,” she continued. “This is definitely where the industry is going.”
The pricing for Powered by We’s facilities management service has yet to be determined.
“We’re passionate about helping companies create an amazing workplace experience every day, everywhere, and providing a comprehensive facilities management offering is key to achieving this,” Craig Robinson, the global head of Powered by We services, said in a statement. “As the world of work evolves, we’re excited about innovating to create the next generation of facilities management with new service models, technology and products that speak to our members’ portfolio needs.”
Ehrenberg—a graduate of the City, University of London—has been in the industry for more than 25 years and was previously the global director of facilities management for CBRE (CBRE). She joined JLL in 2014 where she managed 1 billion square feet in the United States including offices for Microsoft (MSFT), IBM and Google (GOOGL).
“Maureen is a highly regarded and accomplished professional who led our global IFM business, adding value for our clients, our suppliers and our people,” a spokesman for JLL said in a statement. “We wish her all the best on the next stage of her career.”
