WeWork, the fast-growing provider of co-sharing work spaces, has acquired Case, the New York-based building information modeling consultant.
The acquisition of comes a few months after WeWork, in June, announced that it had raised $400 million from investors, bringing its total funding to nearly $1 billion.
David Fano, one of Case’s three cofounders, explained that as part of WeWork, his firm’s design teams will be thinking more about “process improvements” and how it can take efficient space design, construction, and management to the next level. “We were really excited about being on the decision-making side … and having a direct hand in designing the construction we are going to do,” Fano told the Commercial Observer.
Fano says more than 90% of Case’s 63-person workforce is joining WeWork, and that his company will now work exclusively for its owner. He adds that the combination should help WeWork standardize the means by which it designs its properties.
Started less than five years ago, WeWork’s valuation is now somewhere between $5 billion and $10 billion. The company has more than 30,000 customers in 11 U.S. cities, and more than 1 million sf of shared office space in New York City alone. In the first half of 2015, WeWork was Manhattan’s most active tenant, according to The Real Deal.
Over the last 36 months, WeWork has grown to 70 employees from eight. A few months ago, Roni Bahir, its Executive Vice president of Strategic Development and Special Projects, said the company intends to open between 40 and 50 locations by June 2016, and add at least 50 million sq of space within the next five years. WeWork has been one of Case’s “owner” clients for the past three years.
When Case launched in 2008, it was operating out of one of WeWork’s spaces, and the two companies have since been linked at the hip as WeWork has expanded. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but both Case and WeWork have moved into permanent headquarters at 115 West 18th Street in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.
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