John Santora
CEO at WeWork
Not only has John Santora turned WeWork into a growing business again after it exited bankruptcy in early 2024, but he’s also helped carve out more of a digital presence for the pioneering coworking firm.
After shedding tons of space during its bankruptcy proceedings, WeWork has been going digital with an app to streamline the booking experience for clients as well as affiliate programs that expand its reach without the need for new leases. WeWork has over 1,000 third-party partner locations across 500 locations in North America under direct management.
And it’s signing new leases. Those include a 60,000-square-foot deal across five floors at AmTrust RE’s 250 Broadway in July, and a 55,000-square-foot lease at the Moinian Group’s 245 Fifth Avenue in August.
The space it has under lease is in demand, with Amazon expanding to 560,000 square feet at 1440 Broadway, a 745,000-square-foot building owned by CIM Group where WeWork has a large presence. The demand is coming from tech names, too.
“We have 220 AI firms in our spaces and we work with 4,000 enterprise clients, but those 220 go from the biggest in the world all the way down to two or three people and everybody in between,” Santora told Commercial Observer in early 2025. “C3.ai is a client of ours. OpenAI is in some of our space. Lots of technology companies. Salesforce is a great partner that provides us technology. We provide them some space.”
As for its proptech advancements, WeWork is working on the development of an AI-powered community assistant offering clients 24/7 support via chat, text and phone. Through a portal, members can even complete “self-serve” renewals of contracts on space — no broker or agent required.
On the to-do list is also an effort to consolidate its data to generate market and building reports for further study.
