UPDATED, Dec. 5, 5:49 p.m.: Starting January, beds at WeWork’s Wall Street co-living space will get a lot more expensive.
WeLive studio apartments will rent for $3,050 per month (up from a current $2,000) and 4-bedroom pads will go for $10,000 (up from around $6,000) after the company’s discounted beta pricing expires, according to an email sent to residents over the summer and obtained by The Real Deal. Following publication of this article a WeWork spokesperson told TRD that the $10,000 rate is no longer up-to-date and has been lowered to $8,000.
“We’re incredibly pleased with the performance of WeLive,” a WeWork spokesperson told TRD. “The test period for the building is coming to an end; the pricing now reflects market rates.” The company claims that the building’s occupancy rate is in the high 90s.
WeLive in the Financial District (credit: WeLive)
Two-bedroom apartments will now go for between $5,400 and $6,400 per month and three-bedroom pads for $7,350, the email states.
Apartments are fully furnished, and WeWork justifies the rent in part by pointing to amenities such as a yoga studio, a movie theater and communal/networking events.
WeWork opened its first co-living space — essentially a dormitory for young professionals — in April to great fanfare at Rudin Management’s 110 Wall Street. In a leaked 2014 investor document, the company predicted its co-living business would account for 12 percent of its revenues by the end of 2016.
But reality has been more sobering: the firm only has two co-living locations up and running, on Wall Street and at Vornado’s Crystal City outside Washington, D.C. In August, the Wall Street Journal reported that the firm underestimated the cost of building out WeLive spaces, and plans to mainly put them into new developments going forward.
In comparison, the company’s co-working business seems to be growing far more rapidly. WeWork, valued at $16.9 billion in its most recent funding round, has 138 office locations around the globe – up from 32 in May 2015. Last week, the firm leased an additional 40,000 square feet at Charles Cohen’s 135 East 57th Street, bringing its space there to about 100,000 square feet.