I’m old-fashioned enough to shun red-hot IPOs of companies founded by millennials, but I’ll make an exception if and when WeWork goes public. Some have questioned whether the firm has truly re-imagined office space or whether it is simply adept at making PR waves by overpaying for commercial real estate. Whatever the case, the firm has attracted the bluest of blue-chip backers, including Goldman Sachs, Softbank and JP Morgan.  Its business is creating workspaces for freelancers and entrepreneurs who are looking for customizable office space and the kind of co-workers that WeWork hubs attract.

Denver’s Millennial Hive

I was only minimally aware of WeWork until a few weeks ago, when I took a stroll around one of Denver’s hottest millennial neighborhoods and saw a hive of activity like no other, even in San Francisco. The work district and nearby residential high-rises, most of them brand new, are separated by a noisy corridor of U.S. I-25, but there are walkways over the highway that permit an easy flow of pedestrians between their bedrooms and a cluster big-city amenities ranging from utopian to funky.  This is an attractive feature of urban areas that just a decade ago would have been considered blighted. Dilapidated old buildings can be turned into the kind of space that appeals to young workers and which entices an eclectic variety of vendors. WeWork has the ability not only to attract workers and businesses, but to reshape the cities themselves so that they become even more appealing. The re-urbanization of America has just begun, and WeWork is positioned to be a major player in the process. As such, the lofty valuation that has been given the company’s privately held shares may eventually prove to have been conservative.