The owner of Saks, Hudson’s Bay has acquired a majority stake in co-working office provider Convene in partnership with private equity group Ares Management Corp. and Convene shareholders. The investment is valued at about $500mn, according to The Wall Street Journal. As part of the deal, Convene will operate HBC’s three SaksWorks flexible work, event, restaurant and meeting spaces, which are located inside Saks stores and currently managed by WeWork. The spaces will be rebranded as Convene. (Convene currently manages 23 flex office facilities.).  HBC will be the majority owner of the combined entity, with 26 facilities under management and dozens more under development. It is expected to be the largest premium flex space operator across the U.S., Canada and Europe. With the investment from HBC and Ares, Convene’s future expansion will focus on locations in key urban and suburban markets. Convene said it combines design, technology, and hospitality to deliver elevated meeting and event spaces that enable business productivity and collaboration. It offers a proprietary virtual and hybrid events platform that can be added to any Convene or third-party location venue to enable seamless, secure, hybrid, and virtual meetings for up to 10,000 virtual attendees.