March 28, 2019
WeWork headed to high-profile North Gulch development
Co-working giant WeWork Cos. is headed to Capitol View.
On Thursday, WeWork announced plans to open a 65,000-square-foot space inside the $750 million mixed-use development driving much of the revitalization of Charlotte Avenue. WeWork’s new office will go inside the same 10-story building set to house health care IT company HealthStream Inc. (Nasdaq: HSTM), which will move its corporate headquarters to Capitol View this year.
“We’re excited to officially announce a third WeWork location in Nashville and our very first in The Gulch,” Bobby Condon, WeWork’s Southeast general manager, said in a statement. “WeWork Capitol View will be located in the heart of Nashville in a dynamic, urban area where our members can take advantage of walkability and public transportation amid some of the city’s best in living, retail, entertainment and more.”
Co-working brands have proliferated across Greater Nashville amid the region’s economic growth, particularly in white-collar jobs. Eighteen co-working brands operate in the Nashville area, consuming nearly 717,000 square feet of office space, according to Nashville Business Journal research. WeWork accounts for one-fifth of that space, reinforcing that it is a giant among its competitors. WeWork has locations in about 90 cities worldwide and raised funding last summer from a key investor, Japan-based SoftBank Vision Fund, at a valuation of $20 billion.
In September, WeWork’s top Nashville official said the company was scouting for a third local location and expected an announcement “soon.” WeWork entered Nashville with a splash in 2017, leasing a combined 91,000 square feet at the One Nashville Place tower downtown and at The Wabash, a building in East Nashville.
The next month, the Nashville Business Journal first reported WeWork had filed plans for roughly 60,000 square feet of co-working space inside 18th & Chet, a 10-story office building under construction in Midtown, steps from Nashville’s famed Music Row. Accounting giant EY plans to bring 600 jobs to the building. The status the status of lease negotiations was unclear on Thursday.
Capitol View is designed to include 1.1 million square feet of office space; about 45 percent of that is the 17-story building for HCA subsidiaries Sarah Cannon Research Institute and Parallon Business Solutions. LifeWay Christian Resources is also headquartered in the development.
Capitol View is designed to include about 600 apartments, 130,000 square feet of retail, a pair of hotels and a public park, among other features. Publix Super Markets Inc. will open one of its urban stores inside the development, at the corner of Charlotte Avenue and 11th Avenue North.