WOTSO FlexSpace has expanded its network in New Zealand, opening it’s third location in the island nation. The space is in partnership with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa, the commercial arm of the central Tāmaki tangata whenua and one of Auckland’s largest landowners. The space will take the ground floor space of an A-Grade building, and a part of Whai Rawa’s vision and revitalisation of the precinct.

WOTSO has been in the news a lot lately – to hear more from their CEO on where they’re headed, check out this exclusive chat with Jessie Glew, from your TWIC podcast.

Tashi Dorjee, JLL‘s Head of Flex in Australasia, shared some info on CIVIS, their end-to-end flex solution in APAC. This rollout will help landlords (commercial, retail, and recently residential) design, build and operate their own transparent flex businesses.

"Run-for-you flex" is an undercurrent trend we are following – where owners of office buildings bring in experts to design, implement and manage flex offerings that serve wider tenant and asset needs.

Wondering what office portfolio owners in the region think about offering flex products? Listen to the recent episode of the This Week in Coworking podcast where we interview Jessie Glew of WOTSO on 10 years (and millions of dollars in additional revenue) of being an office portfolio owner AND an operator of flex spaces.

In what is a change in typical operations, WOTSO is opening a satellite location with private offices, but no hot desks or meeting rooms, just 3km from one of their traditional ones. The space also won’t have a permanent full time host on site – as the location will be tended to by staff close by.

There is a trend we are witnessing in autonomous/unmanned spaces that are activated using more developed tech stacks. This is a concept that fits squarely in where the industry seems to be headed.

Not the only news this week that touches on the differentiation of flexible workspace, WOTSO has rolled out a HealthSpace segment of space offerings within their portfolio.

This portion of their portfolio features custom-built workspaces for health and well-being practitioners, including physios, acupuncturists, chiropractors, psychologists, nutritionists, masseuses and naturopaths. Two years after their first iteration of this concept, they’ve opened a total of five and have a minimum of three more in the works.

Not many flexible workspace operators are publicly held companies. So the few that are provide us great insight into the numbers of space ownership and management. WOTSO Flex Space parent company posted a record $47.9 M in revenue. Beyond that, they lowered debt and increased revenue per desk by 3%. Overall rental income increased by 8% with an average portfolio occupancy rate of 98%.

One of the secrets behind all these positive numbers (not to mention a posted profit)? The fact that WOTSO owns the 16 buildings in their portfolio.