International Workplace Group (IWG), the 3,300-location flexible workspace global powerhouse parent of Regus, a professional workplace brand; Spaces, a creative workplace brand; HQ, a hassle-free workplace brand; and Signature, a luxurious workspace brand, has become more relevant than ever. While flexible workspaces were growing in popularity pre-COVID, the pandemic certainly accelerated the trend. Today, 90% of workers in North America are working in a more flexible way and 88% of companies are supporting those workers. That means landlords have a prime opportunity to cater to this demand by partnering with IWG. Best of all, building owners do not need to worry about converting their entire real estate portfolio to flexible workspaces.

“Business investors only need to convert some of the space under their portfolio,” said IWG CEO of the Americas Wayne Berger. “We’ve been able to successfully launch an IWG location in a space as small as 10,000 square feet. This will simply provide them with a new stream of potential tenants they can’t access today. It is also a new stream of income.”

And these types of solutions are increasingly attractive to business investors trying to navigate a post-COVID world. With remote and hybrid work on the rise and the culture of work rapidly evolving, many employers are downsizing or eliminating their brick-and-mortar office space altogether. This is leading to many business investors struggling to identify tenants willing to commit to long-term leases to fill current or upcoming vacancies. 

“Some owners have been struggling to fill space for years, and others just had some become available,” said IWG Regional Director of Partnership Growth Ryan Semler. “We can now offer them flexible opportunities in any type of building, not just your standard office space. You may own a retail building, a transport hub, an apartment complex, a hotel. It doesn’t matter. You can really see it from all sides of the spectrum. More and more building owners are starting to see the value of bringing a flexible workspace to their portfolio.”

Building owners can take a percentage of their portfolio, partner with IWG and invest capital to convert that space to a flexible workspace. This provides business investors with operating income from day one, a higher return on net assets and increased flexibility, similar to how Airbnb has distributed residential real estate, Berger says.

“We currently operate the largest platform in the globe when it comes to real estate,” said Berger. “Why does that make a difference for building owners? Today, we receive 1.5 million inquiries every year from people, companies and workers, who are explicitly looking for space. The demand continues to come in, and now we are trying to keep up with supply. The bigger we are, the more demand we drive, which in turn means we need more locations. That is why, if you are a property owner or a management company with empty space in your portfolio, the time has never been better to join IWG, activate that space into a high-demand flexible workspace and bring in revenue immediately.”

In a recent webinar, 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills, IWG Regional Director of Partnership Growth Ryan Semler and IWG CEO of the Americas Wayne Berger discussed how IWG has seen record-breaking agreements with business investors to turn empty building space into profitable revenue. Watch the full conversation here. 

Learn more at https://www.iwgplc.com/en-gb/develop-a-location.