IWG Takes Over Last Ucommune Space in Hong Kong as Four Centres Open

Flexible workplace big IWG is including 4 new centres in Hong Kong after taking over the past location in the town of a one-time Chinese rival to WeWork and launching three new areas on Hong Kong Island.

IWG final month opened a brand new centre beneath its flagship Regus model in Grand Century Place Tower 1 in Kowloon, occupying a 21,191 sq. foot (1,970 sq. metre) location previously leased by Ucommune, Jonathan Wright, Knight Frank senior director for workplace technique and options in the town informed Mingtiandi on Tuesday.

On 1 August, the agency is about to formally open a 22,175 sq. foot location beneath its HQ co-working model in K11 Atelier King’s Road in North Point, with that debut coming shortly after it launched a brand new centre beneath the identical marque in Causeway Bay’s Leighton Centre final month.

“Our expansion comes as both businesses and employees embrace flexible work solutions and continue to seek hybrid work arrangements, reaping the benefits of hybrid working’s people-centric approach in improving productivity, lowering operating costs and reducing carbon footprint from shorter commutes,” Paul MacAndrew, nation supervisor for IWG in Hong Kong, mentioned in an trade with Mingtiandi on Wednesday.

Partnerships on the Rise

Located at 193 Prince Edward Road in Mong Kok, Regus at Grand Century Place provides personal places of work, sizzling desks, assembly rooms and board rooms with charges beginning at HK$3,250 per individual per 30 days for personal places of work primarily based on the corporate web site on the time of publication.

Taking over Ucommune’s final location comes after the Beijing-based coworking supplier mentioned in its 2022 financials that it had nonetheless not achieved profitability since its inception in April 2015. Ucommune got here near being delisted from the NASDAQ trade early final 12 months after its share value fell beneath the required minimal bid value.

Ucommune, which entered Hong Kong in 2018, didn’t touch upon its reported exit from the town, whereas its rival IWG continues to broaden its presence in the monetary hub.

Wright mentioned IWG’s upcoming HQ at K11 Atelier is a partnership between the versatile workspace specialist and property big New World Development, which accomplished the tower in 2019. The tie-up targets smaller occupiers seeking to safe a spot in the 22-storey grade A workplace tower whereas additionally offering facilities to current tenants in the constructing.

MacAndrew mentioned his staff will proceed to concentrate on forging partnerships with workplace landlords in the town to “turn empty building space into income-generating flexible workspace.”

IWG’s newly opened HQ centre in the Leighton Centre tower close to Causeway Bay MTR station gives as much as 15,000 sq. ft of workspace, assembly rooms, occasion area, coworking area and two outdoors balcony areas, the corporate mentioned.

Another 8,200 sq. ft of versatile workspace was made accessible final month in the China Huarong Tower at 60 Gloucester Road in Wan Chai beneath IWG’s self-service model, Open Office.

The 4 new centres will enhance IWG’s presence in Hong Kong to 21 areas for a complete of 37 centres throughout the Greater Bay Area. Globally, the agency has over 3,500 areas in 120 international locations.

“Flexible workspace operators are noting increased activity in the market as small occupiers continue to look for opportunities in better buildings where they can take space without deploying capital – meaning many operators have healthy occupancy rates,” mentioned Wright, who brokered the offers at Grand Century Place and K11 Atelier.

Office Market Slumps

Landlords have been exploring methods so as to add worth to their workplace buildings by providing tenants extra facilities together with versatile workplace centres, managed suites, tenant lounges, meals retailers and wellness hubs, Wright mentioned.

“The overall market remains a little slow. However, we are anticipating more activity from larger occupiers in the second half of the year and into 2024,” he added.

Hong Kong’s workplace leasing market continued to slip in the second quarter as the border reopening in February didn’t cease multinational corporations from downsizing in Asia’s costliest workplace market.

Occupiers of grade A places of work gave again 172,700 sq. ft greater than they booked final quarter, particularly in Tsim Sha Tsui and Central, as corporations scaled again their operations. The destructive web absorption pushed general emptiness from 17.1 p.c on the finish of March to 17.3 p.c by 30 June.

Less leasing means grade A workplace rents have slid 3.6 p.c up to now this 12 months, with the Hong Kong East space round Quarry Bay and North Point main the drop with a 6.4 p.c decline.