Photos: WeWork opens 4th Houston location in Hines downtown trophy tower and plans expansion in the Galleria

Coworking it out

WeWork opened the doors to its fourth Houston location. Courtesy of WeWork

WeWork has officially doubled down on its downtown presence in Houston. The coworking company has officially opened the doors of its space within Hines' trophy tower.

The coworking space makes up 50,000 square feet on two floors of 609 Main St. The 48-story building, which is owned and developed by Houston-based Hines, premiered on the downtown Houston skyline in 2017.

"The new WeWork space at 609 Main Street is a great complement to our state-of-the-art office building in downtown Houston," says Philip Croker, senior managing director at Hines, in a news release. "It's been a pleasure to work with this team and we are eager to see their space filled with Houston's cutting-edge businesses. We know WeWork in Houston is strong and look forward to our partnership growing in the years to come."

Meanwhile in the Galleria area, WeWork is opening two additional floors of its space in Galleria Tower I this month. More details on the expansion are still to come.

The new 609 Main location, which was originally announced this summer, joins the Galleria location and a Woodlands location in Hughes Landing, which also just announced its new location recently, as well as another downtown location in the Jones Building — just across the street at 708 Main St.

The new location is modern and high-end, per the release, which juxtaposes its historic sister location in downtown. The 609 Main location has a more executive feel than the homey environment of the Jones Building. For that, the new location charges a bit of a premium. Private offices at 609 Main begin at $780 a month, compared to the rates of $550 at the Jones Building and $580 at Galleria Tower I. Unassigned desk memberships are around $300 monthly for the two older locations, compared to closer to $400 for 609 Main.

"WeWork is eager to continue its expansion in the Houston area with the opening of our fourth location in Houston and second downtown," says Nathan Lenahan, general manager for Texas at WeWork, in the release. "The space at 609 Main Street is a perfect location for those businesses and entrepreneurs downtown looking to expand and have a flexible, creative office environment that promotes community."

Last month, the New York Times announced job cuts companywide for WeWork, however there has not been any regional reports for the coworking company or any information on how the cuts will affect Houston locations.

Executive feel

wework 609 main

Courtesy of WeWork

Compared to WeWork's other Houston locations, the 609 Main space has more of an executive feel — and monthly membership reflects that. Rates are a full $200 more a month for a private office compared to WeWork's other downtown location.

It's WeWork Labs' second Texas location — the first opened last fall in Dallas. Courtesy of WeWork

WeWork brings early-stage startup program to downtown Houston

lab work

WeWork is betting on the Bayou City as it plans to open up WeWork Labs in its downtown Houston coworking space. The early-stage program will provide up to 30 startups with mentorship and resources coordinated by its partner organization, Alice, an entrepreneurial digital resource with Texas ties.

"At Alice, our research has shown that entrepreneurs are hungry for guidance that gets into the nitty gritty: 'What next step should I take?' 'How exactly do I go about fundraising?' 'What should my to-do list look like if customer acquisition is my No. 1 goal?'' says Carolyn Rodz, CEO and co-founder of Alice, in a release. "We're really excited to collaborate with WeWork Labs to bring these answers to their members through both programming and online support."

WeWork Labs launches this month in the WeWork Jones Building at 708 Main St. It's the second Texas location — Dallas' location opened last fall. Prices for the program begin at $300 a month for entrepreneurs, and the program does not take equity in the participating startups.

Leading the program is Labs Manager Carlos Estrada and WeWork Managing Director Emily Keeton — both have long careers in innovation and startups across the country. Keeton was among the original founders of Station Houston and is based in Houston. A Houston native, Estrada most recently launched Roots Venture Group, which focused on growing startups within the agricultural and rural industries.

"As the fourth largest city, Houston is in a unique position to launch high-impact startups," Estrada says in the release. "We see WeWork Labs in Houston as a tremendous platform for innovation, as our founder-focused approach to supporting early-stage startups will nurture and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs to scale their solutions to today's biggest challenges. We look forward to growing our community here and bringing together key players across the region to drive innovation throughout Houston, the state of Texas, and beyond."

WeWork Labs launched around a year ago and now has over 30 locations worldwide. The program hopes to connect the dots for startups and the corporate world by providing education, mentorship, and a global network. The downtown Houston location will operate alongside WeWork's Veterans in Residence program and the Flatiron School campus.

"We are incredibly honored to have WeWork Labs join our community to support an already growing network of startups within the city of Houston," says Nathan Lenahan, WeWork's general manager for Texas, in the release. "Housing WeWork Labs with both our Flatiron School campus and Veterans in Residence program is a true testament to the innovative community we strive to create within our spaces. We are thrilled to expand on our commitment to Houston and its entrepreneurs and can't wait to see the impact we can have together on it's diverse community."

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9 Houston-based companies make Fortune Global 500 list in 2026

Worldwide Rankings

Nine Houston companies landed on the 2026 Fortune Global 500 list, which ranks the world's largest corporations by revenue for the 2025 fiscal year.

Houston's showing on the list was led by energy companies, with Spring’s ExxonMobil claiming the top local spot. Here’s what Houston-area companies made the list, and where they ranked:

  • No. 15 ExxonMobil
  • No. 36 Chevron
  • No. 61 Phillip 66
  • No. 159 Sysco
  • No. 243 ConocoPhillips
  • No. 292 Enterprise Products Partners
  • No. 343 Plains GP Holdings
  • No. 460 SLB
  • No. 481 Hewlett Packard Enterprise

After 12 years as No.1, Arkansas-based Walmart was replaced this year by Seattle-based Amazon in the top spot for 2026. Amazon achieved this by bringing in $700 billion in revenue in 2025, representing a 12 percent increase from the previous year.

"Across global business, we see again and again that the leaders who are winning are those who embrace change,” Alyson Shontell, Fortune's editor in chief and chief content officer, said in a news release. "Amazon has topped the Fortune Global 500, knocking Walmart off its pedestal. The company has continually reinvented itself across new businesses and bold bets—including a $200 billion capital commitment, largely to building its capacity for AI and cloud computing, in this year alone."

The U.S. has 141 companies on the 2026 Fortune Global 500 list, which is the most of any country. Companies in America generated $15.5 trillion in aggregate revenues, a 6 percent increase from the previous year.

The number of women CEOs at Fortune Global 500 companies reached a record of 34 top leaders, who represented 6.8 percent of CEOs of companies on the list.

Technology was the standout growth industry on this year’s list, with 38 companies earning revenues that grew 20 percent to about $4 trillion in 2025, with profits climbing 36 percent to $835 billion. The financial sector accounted for the largest share of companies on the list again, with 123 companies in that sector. The energy sector claimed the No. 2 industry spot with 77 companies making the list.

In June, the Fortune 500 list was released, and Texas led the United States with 57 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state, generating $2.8 trillion in combined revenue.

Fast-growing Houston real estate startup surges to No. 7 on Inc. 5000

growth report

Houston-based Epique Realty has ridden the AI wave to rank among the Inc. 5000’s 10 fastest-growing private companies.

With three-year revenue growth of 23,210 percent, the AI-powered real estate brokerage appears at No. 7 on this year’s Inc. 5000 list. The 2026 list ranks private companies based on percentage revenue growth from 2022 to 2025.

Epique, founded in 2021, also ranks as the No. 1 fastest-growing company in Houston, No. 1 fastest-growing real estate company in the U.S., and No. 2 fastest-growing company in Texas.

Epique’s annual revenue surpasses $91 million

Between 2022 and 2025, the company’s annual revenue skyrocketed from $391,654 to more than $91.2 million. In 2025, the brokerage closed more than 23,000 deals and surpassed $7 billion in total sales, elevating Epique to the country’s 14th-largest real estate brokerage as measured by volume.

Epique’s network has more than 4,000 agents.

“To debut in the top 10 of the Inc. 5000 is absolute proof that when you relentlessly put agents first, exponential growth takes care of itself,” co-founder and CEO Joshua Miller said in a news release.

“We didn’t achieve this by following the industry playbook; we achieved this by burning it,” Miller added. “By fully funding our agents’ success through free health care, proprietary AI, and world-class leads, we’ve built a company where agents can finally thrive.”

The company’s other co-founders are Chris Miller, chief operating officer and vice president of expansion, and Janice Delci, chief financial officer.

Epique expands business to Canada, Mexico, Australia

The Millers and Delci have guided the company’s rapid expansion.

“Scaling our corporate support team to match [our] hyper-growth while seamlessly expanding across all 50 states and internationally to Canada, Australia, and Mexico takes an incomparable operational infrastructure,” Miller said.

“We have built an enterprise-grade technology ecosystem that allows us to absorb overhead and empower our agents at lightning speed,” he added. “This ranking validates that our disruptive model is working, and it is completely redefining the global industry standard.”

Epique launched its platform in 2023, touting itself as the industry’s first AI-powered brokerage. The startup’s platform provides AI tools for real estate agents to improve their marketing, streamline content creation, and boost engagement with clients and prospects.

Among Epique’s AI tools are:

  • ChatGPT for generation of property descriptions
  • AI-assisted creation of blog posts and agents’ bios
  • Production of Instagram quotes for social media marketing

“When we started Epique, we wanted to build a company that genuinely cared for its agents’ financial and physical well-being,” Delci says. “To see that vision translate into this level of historic record-breaking growth is a beautiful testament to the true power of radical generosity.”

Epique and fellow honorees will be recognized Oct. 14-16 at the 2026 Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala in Dallas.

Six other Houston-area companies land in top 250

Here are the six other Houston-area companies that claimed spots in the top 250 on the Inc. 5000 list. Each company name is followed by its ranking, headquarters city, and three-year growth rate.

  • No. 27 Empact Technologies, 8,275 percent
  • No. 60 Action1, 4,512 percent
  • No 75 Signs By G, 3,684 percent
  • No. 79 The ’Pause Life, 3,469 percent (Galveston)
  • No. 110 Turtlebox Audio, 2,576 percent
  • No. 178 Dahnani Private Equity Group, 1,904 percent (Stafford)

How did companies in Texas’ other major metros fare?

Here’s a breakdown of companies in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio areas that made the top 250 on the Inc. 5000. Again, each company name is followed by its ranking, headquarters city, and three-year growth rate.

Austin (10 companies)

  • No. 9 Investment Watches, 15,741 percent
  • No. 72 Razor Metrics, 3,856 percent
  • No. 91 Autonomize AI, 2,921 percent
  • No. 102 Choose Your Horizon, 2,719 percent
  • No. 132 Wander Staffing, 2,296 percent
  • No. 144 Everyday Dose, 2,179 percent
  • No. 148 NetRise, 2,118 percent
  • No. 163 Nutrabound Labs, 1,999 percent (Bastrop)
  • No. 179 Steadily, 1,890 percent
  • No. 208 Tiny Health, 1,624 percent

Dallas-Fort Worth (11 companies)

  • No. 3 Yantran, 258,740 percent (Allen)
  • No. 12 Paek Management Group, 12,520 percent (Irving)
  • No. 82 Elite Robotics and Automation, 3,334 percent (Fort Worth)
  • No. 133 Outamation, 2,291 percent (Southlake)
  • No. 147 Red Creek Solutions, 2,119 percent (Frisco)
  • No. 155 JobTread Software, 2,071 percent (Dallas)
  • No. 164 DAX Eyewear, 1,977 percent (Nevada)
  • No. 186 Optimized Waste Removal, 1,830 percent (Fort Worth)
  • No. 204 Freight Flex, 1,642 percent (Denton)
  • No. 212 Maverick Power, 1,591 percent (McKinney)
  • No. 229 Innovative Life Sciences, 1,494 percent (McKinney)

San Antonio (one company)

  • No. 118 Hire With Near, 2,421 percent

Amazon to expand Prime Air drone delivery to almost 500 U.S. cities

In the air

https://sanantonio.culturemap.com/news/city-life/prime-air-expands-service-texas/By the end of the year, more Texans may be able to get ultrafast deliveries through Amazon’s Prime Air drone delivery service. On Wednesday, August 19, the company announced plans to majorly expand drone delivery to nearly 500 cities in the U.S., a sixfold increase from its current footprint.

Although Amazon did not reveal the cities it is targeting for the expansion, it almost certainly will include Texas. The state, which ranks among the biggest states for ecommerce activity, is currently home to four of the nation’s 11 Prime Air sites, including the Houston suburb of Richmond, as well as San Antonio, Waco, and Richardson (near Dallas).

For drone deliveries, the company tends to target areas unencumbered by skyscrapers and major airports. Each facility covers a delivery area of approximately 175 square miles.

Prime Air deliveries must be five pounds or less and fit into a large shoebox. Still, Amazon says more than 60 percent of its most ordered items are eligible. The list includes groceries, cosmetics, medications, clothing, and small electronics like Apple AirPods and Ring doorbells. More fragile items — like eggs — are not available through the service.

Orders arrive as quickly as 30 minutes, with most packages dropped around 60 minutes after checkout. Prime members will enjoy free delivery on orders $50 or more and a $2.99 fee for orders under $50. Non-members pay $4.99.

Amazon drone delivery Photo courtesy of Amazon

According to Amazon, customers should have little worries about orders being damaged or drones being entangled in trees. Shoppers see and confirm their delivery point when placing their first drone delivery order and can select a new area at any time.

Amazon also sends a notification to customers if there is no safe delivery space and does not fly at night or under severe weather conditions. The retail giant says noise is minimal with sound levels similar to idling delivery trucks.

Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, and New York are the first states on the expansion plan. All future sites will be subject to regulatory hurdles like zoning changes, but the company is confident it will be serving tens of millions of new customers by year-end.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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