John Santora and Anant Yardi

WeWork’s resurrection defied the expectations of commercial real estate industry leaders who were writing the coworking firm’s obituary once it declared bankruptcy in 2023, and it continues to reclaim territory under CEO John Santora and investment from ​​Anant Yardi.

Yardi and Santora have managed to take a firm that had been steadily circling the drain since a failed initial public offering in 2019 and create a sustainable business model that has seen steady growth with new leases and subleases signed to the likes of Amazon. The e-commerce giant took 259,000 square feet at a WeWork site at 1440 Broadway in August, expanding its footprint there to 560,000 feet. Other such five- and six-figure deals occurred throughout last year.

Santora, who became CEO of WeWork in 2024 after its extensive Chapter 11 restructuring in which it shed much of its office space, seems to be making good on bullish promises he made in a February 2025 Commercial Observer interview.

“Companies today are no longer anchored to a single headquarters or a one-size-fits-all model,” Santora said in a separate statement. “Instead, they’re looking to diversify their real estate portfolio, and build in the flexibility to reduce or increase the footprint as their needs and the market change. At WeWork, we’re delivering an integrated platform designed for a smarter way to work.”

But WeWork probably wouldn’t be seeing the revival it’s seeing today without the help of Yardi, who took a majority stake in the company in April 2024, pouring $450 million into its coffers for the next chapter. Yardi explained to investors at the time that WeWork is an ideal vehicle for meeting the needs of changing workplace patterns, and that Yardi Systems’ technology could be a major factor in its revival.

Now, WeWork isn’t merely leasing office space in Manhattan again, but is building out software that can go anywhere. One example is an October 2024 deal with Vast Coworking Group to make its booking software available in Vast’s franchises across the U.S. and Canada.

“With a composable stack of real estate, services and technology, we help companies move beyond reacting to change,” Santora said. “Our platform creates the employee experience and different ways to work, while also enabling the company to build flexibility and adaptability into its real estate strategies.”