In this episode, we welcome Hunter Berman, Senior Market Director of Broker Partnerships at WeWork. Hunter shares his journey into the field, the impact of the pandemic on workspace needs, and the growing demand for flexible office solutions.

Transcript

Hal Coopersmith: Welcome to Broker’s Angle. In this episode, we are speaking to Hunter Berman, the Senior Market Director of Broker Partnerships for WeWork. Welcome, Hunter.

Hunter Berman: Thank you for having me, Hal.

Hal Coopersmith: So how did you get into commercial real estate?

Hunter Berman: Well, that takes me back a bit. I remember it was the summer, I believe it was between sophomore and junior or junior and senior year of college. And I’d asked my dad, after, you know, deciding I wanted to be an English and philosophy major, what am I going to do with this? He sort of chuckled at me as I chuckled back at myself. he said, look, I have an idea, , my dad being an attorney, took out his legal pad from his briefcase, made a few t-charts on the legal pad and said, okay, this is what you like, this is what you don’t like, this is, you know, what you’re good at and what you’re not good at. I’m going to leave you to your own devices for the next, you know, two hours or so and come back and see what you come up with. So we didn’t, we did in fact do that. And, two or so hours later, my dad comes back in, all right, let me see what you came up with. And he’s reading through my notes. And one of the first things he says is, Oh, you know what? You might actually like commercial real estate brokerage. And I look at him and I said, can you make a lot of money doing that? He said. You sure can. I said, okay, sign me up. And, you know, over a decade later, and here I am still in this world.

Hal Coopersmith: What did you do? Where did you get your start?

Hunter Berman: So, at upon graduating, from Emory University in 2011, I started at Newmark Knight Frank, now otherwise just known as Newmark, in New York and I worked for the Vice Chairman of tenant representation at Newmar, a man by the name of Neil Goldmark.

Hal Coopersmith: And after Newmark, where did you go?

Hunter Berman: So after Newmark, I, you know, after six or so years there, I left to go to Cushman and Wakefield, follow an individual by the name of Mark Weiss, who, along with my mentor, Arthur Draznin, we concluded a large transaction for Doctors Without Borders in the midst of that Mark had left from Newmark to Cushman and said, Hey, why don’t you come and follow me?

We did some great work on that transaction and that’s in fact what we did. And that was a Cushman Wakefield for about three and a half years, right before the pandemic hit.

Hal Coopersmith: And what prompted the move to WeWork?

Hunter Berman: The move was prompted by the pandemic. lockdown happened in March, 2020, and as a 1099 broker, you had some reservations on where your next commission check would come from, especially when one of the first things that happened during the pandemic was, people not going into the office anymore.

People trying to stay protected and stay with their loved ones, as they should. And the last thing that people were doing was going to the office, signing new leases and as I mentioned, me a 1099 commission only, business. I had to reevaluate where, what my future would look like, especially, having my firstborn, my son, who was six or seven months around lockdown, and fortunately, I was able to conclude a couple transactions during that difficult year, but I knew the future was, at least in that moment, kind of bleak, and, long and behold, I had a recruiter from a similar company to WeWork, Notel, reach out to me, salaried, with commission, doing a lot of things I like to do just in the flex world.

And I’ve always been interested in the flex world. And I decided that that was the route to go. And spent about 7 or 8 months at Notel, and then that paved the way for me to come to WeWork in April 2021.

Hal Coopersmith: So flex world, I certainly wanted to talk about that. What is happening in the flex world right now?

Hunter Berman: Well, it’s an exciting time to be in Flex. a lot of companies are utilizing Flex as an extension of their portfolio, if they have an existing one, or if companies had gone fully remote during the pandemic and now are realizing that, you know, the, best way that the company will perform as far as productivity, as far as, general just feeling around the office and, and the connective, connectivity, with the employees in the office.

That is direction companies are looking to go. They just don’t know how much space necessarily need. They don’t know who’s necessarily coming in, who’s going to be more hybrid, who’s more remote, who’s in the office every single day. And Flex just adds a very important angle to the conversation and to the thought process, because typical leases, especially in New York, are, you know, the shortest we typically see on a direct basis is five, maybe seven year leases, but the typical had always been around 10 years, 15 years. And companies just don’t have that type of insight into their business like they used to. They can’t project what their headcount is going to be further along than they used to. And Flex provides that opportunity to gauge what a company needs to be and where they want to go.

Hal Coopersmith: So you talk about flexible office space as a gateway for a lot of different companies. What sort of product for those sorts of companies is moving quickly within WeWork? Is it larger or smaller? What kind of footprint?

Hunter Berman: we have multiple pillars to our business. Our bread and butter has been our small to medium sized businesses. What we call our 10 to 49 person offices. It’s probably skewed down a bit now. It’s probably more 10 to 40 people. But, you know, we, we’ve also have, a lot of enterprise users that are looking for what we call 50 plus person offices. And it’s a, it’s a unique product in the market that 50 plus, you know, there definitely is demand for managed office for offices for fortune 500 companies.

As I mentioned earlier, companies that are looking to utilize flex as a component to their overall real estate portfolio. But, you know, our bread and butter is still, you know, that 10 to 40 person office and it’s just a very dynamic tranche of office space. Right? Like we’re seeing 10 person companies within two or three months of the agreement, they sign up and say, Hey, like, We, we actually need space for 20, we actually need space for 30. And, it’s a dynamic part of the portfolio that’s constantly churning in a good way. And, we’re leveraging our portfolio in the best way that we can to that makes sense for our growing membership base.

Hal Coopersmith: WeWork’s past is certainly well documented. I don’t think we need to go over that, but what’s, does the future hold for WeWork and WeWork tenants?

Hunter Berman: Well, you know, we are, we’re back to being a private Privately held company. we have no debt. We have finished our chapter 11 restructure. I believe that we’re in a great position to provide the best service for our members, the best service for our incoming members as well as for our for our broker partners that we work with on a day-to-day basis.

They should feel very confident that our portfolio is sound. We’re going to absolutely make improvements to the portfolio, deliver that experience that, our members and potentially new members are accustomed to or what they expect of in WeWork. And I suspect that, you know, after 2024 leading into 2025, there will be a period of growth, just to accommodate that growing flex demand. We’re getting very creative with our approach in, in our growth, speaking to landlords on a management agreement basis where there’s, you know, a bit of profit sharing between us and the landlords. There’s minimal risks on both sides, but a lot of potential incentive. Looking to partner with landlords on some other things such as 575 Lexington Avenue, we recently opened up a amenity space that’s available for WeWork members as well as for tenants of 575 Lexington Avenue, which I think is a, you know, start of a great partnership and great idea that we can utilize with landlords moving forward.

Hal Coopersmith: What you talk about service and providing great service, what should prospective tenants know about WeWork?

Hunter Berman: They should know that they will have the best in class experience that a real estate company can provide. The coffee is going to taste the same wherever you go. There’s going to be ample amounts of phone booths and workstations in the open area if you need. Ample amounts of conferencing space, should you have a last minute 20 person, meeting that needs to take place. Offices are going to be clean. They’re going to be, you know, furnished, wired, ready to go, so that someone can, realizing they need to get to the office at a period of time, they can rush to the office, seamlessly get in with their WeWork key card, sit down at their desk, log in, and get ready to work.

And, you know, that is what, you know, people are looking for, is just the ease of use, and, the convenience of the platform. And that is what we’re known for, and it’s what we will continue to be known for, for the foreseeable future.

Hal Coopersmith: You are the head of Broker Partnerships. What should other commercial real estate brokers know about WeWork?

Hunter Berman: They should know that when they’re working with, me and my team as well as the, leasing team, we are, best in class at what we do. We are extremely knowledgeable. What you see is what you get from us. We understand the market. We understand where we need to be, as it relates to pricing as well as, meeting the demands of our broker partners leads and requirements and on top of that, brokers should feel comfortable that they will be compensated for their work. Should they bring any leads to us, they will be compensated on time. And it will be a very thorough, very seamless process where brokers should feel no anxiety about bringing their leads and their trust along with them to WeWork, we will make them look good, we will make them feel comfortable and we look forward to being partners with them for now and, and for the vast future.

Hal Coopersmith: That is a great note to end things on. Hunter Berman, anything else you want to add?

Hunter Berman: I just want to say, you know, Hal, thank you so much for inviting me again to Broker’s Angle. It’s been an honor. I would just say, for any of your, friends, constituents, colleagues that have any questions, concerns, or interest in flexible office space, I’m your guy. So once again, thanks for inviting me.

Hal Coopersmith: Hunter, thank you for being a part of this and thank you for being on Broker’s Angle.

Hunter Berman: Thank you.