Adam Neumann is back in real estate
Emailed on October 16th, 2020 in The Friday Forward
WeWork’s Adam Neumann is back in real estate and not in a small way. The former WeWork CEO just invested $30M into Alfred Club Inc., a startup that provides apartment buildings with services such as concierge-like staff and software to manage maintenance requests and other paperwork.
The investment in residential apartments is a throwback to a Neumann pet project at WeWork. He led an expansion beyond office rentals to community-minded residences called WeLive. The venture never expanded beyond two buildings, in New York City and near Washington, D.C., but it was touted as part of a grander vision for WeWork, to expand beyond the office and into other parts of life—the same rationale for its now-shuttered private elementary school WeGrow.
(For those following along, The We Company just re-re-branded back to WeWork. Some might call it a WeBrand.)
Alfred’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Marcela Sapone, said that when she met Neumann this year, they shared a vision for reinventing real estate, a traditionally slow-moving industry. They both hold “the perspective that real estate can do more for people, that we should demand more from our greatest expense,” she said.
As expected-but-still-newsworthy as it is that Neumann is back in real estate, I have to admit I agree with the sentiment "real estate can do more for people" just not entirely sure that "more" is bread making and happy hours.
