WeWork opening second coworking location in newly renovated downtown Lightwell building

WeWork will continue to shine a light on entrepreneurs in Kansas City with a second location inside the newly named Lightwell building downtown. 

“Since opening our first location here nearly two years ago in the Crossroads at Corrigan Station, WeWork in Kansas City has been bustling with entrepreneurs and high-growth businesses,“ said WeWork’s Kansas City community director Erik Wullschleger. “WeWork Lightwell will not only provide new options for our larger member companies to continue to expand but also bring additional options to our growing downtown business community.”

WeWork Lightwell will claim a more than 101,000 square foot space, divided between the third and fourth floors of the Lightwell building at 1100 Main St. — formerly branded City Center.

News of WeWork’s expansion into the Lightwell building comes after The Port KC board unanimously backed incentives that would redevelop the site, which was purchased by New York-based Somera Road in January. 

“We’re incredibly excited to welcome WeWork to lightwell. They immediately understood our vision for the building’s transformation into a forward-thinking, modern, Class A office tower, and are a perfect fit for the environment we are creating,” said Basel Bataineh, vice president at Somera Road. “The Lightwell will once again be Downtown Kansas City’s premier address and we know WeWork’s members will love access to the streetcar as well as all of the state of the art amenities lightwell has to offer.”  

A change of pace, WeWork Lightwell will offer larger, high-growth companies more options for private office space — in comparison to offerings at WeWork Corrigan Station, noted Leor Reef, senior manager of public affairs. 

The space has already secured its first member in Woburn, Massachusetts-based Volly — a company that uses a SaaS platform to simplify marketing communication strategies for banks and mortgage lenders, WeWork said in a release. 

“Volly is proud to be the first member to join WeWork’s new location. We chose WeWork Lightwell for its central location in downtown Kansas City and because it allows us to configure the space that works best for our employees both now and as we continue to grow,” said Karis Koehn, VP of sales at Volley. 

Click here to read more about WeWork’s impact on startup growth. 

WeWork Lightwell is expected to open late this year, Reef said.