WeWork opens fourth co-working location in Chicago
WeWork is to open its fourth Chicago co-working space at 20 W. Kinzie St, River North, adding 600 desks with the potential for 2,000 when all five floors open. The company is planning to open a fifth location in the Loop.

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New York-based WeWork is opening its fourth Chicago coworking space Friday, adding 600 new desks in the River North building that used to house Google's Chicago office.

WeWork Kinzie plans to eventually take up five floors of 20 W. Kinzie St., but only two of the floors open Friday. The remaining three floors will be added this fall for a total of 2,000 desks at that location, said Bailey Dodds, community manager.

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The space overlooks House of Blues, and the décor pays homage to Chicago’s music scene. There are Kanye West lyrics written into the tile near the elevators, music-themed wallpaper in the conference rooms, and a piano on the 17 th floor in the main event space.

The views, amenities and nearly wraparound terrace will likely make the Kinzie location the main WeWork event space in the city, Dodds said. Its current desk count in the city is around 2,000.

A dedicated desk costs $520 per month, and private offices start at $750. Available offices can accommodate one to 55 people.

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East Coast general manager Dave McLaughlin said WeWork is seeing a demand for larger office spaces throughout its locations.

"While people's perception of the WeWork community is that it's all small companies and startups, the reality is it's much more of a mix of companies, both in terms of verticals and in terms of the company stage and size," he said.

Kinzie joins locations in River North, Fulton Market and near Grant Park. The company says a fifth location is coming soon to the Loop, on Clark Street, called WeWork National Building. It has not announced an opening date.

Chicago fits right in with WeWork's brand, McLaughlin said.

"We look for cities that have strong economies and strong culture, where you have multiple sectors that are strong and there's scale to the economy, and Chicago ticks all those boxes," he said.

WeWork, founded in 2010, has more than 100 locations in 29 cities around the world.

WeWork is adding to the swell of nationally run coworking spaces bulking up their presence in Chicago. Washington, D.C.-based MakeOffices opened its third location in Chicago in June. In May, Minneapolis coworking company Coco acquired West Loop-based Enerspace Chicago, buying its way into the Chicago market.

amarotti@tribpub.com

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