WeWork announces 1-for-40 reverse stock split to retain New York listing::US office space group recently warned it faced ‘substantial doubt’ about ability to continue as a going concern
WeWork announces 1-for-40 reverse stock split to retain New York listing::US office space group recently warned it faced ‘substantial doubt’ about ability to continue as a going concern
I agree with you and I’ve given this a lot of thought over the last year or so. I think the problem is that the need for shared/rental office space isn’t in the big cities where WeWork has its locations, it’s closer to the suburbs where the people that WFH live. The folks that WFH who either don’t have adequate space in their home or prefer to go to an office to work would consider a rental office space but don’t want to have to commute into a major metro area to work. The office space would need to be closer to where these people live and offer a shorter commute than going into your company’s office.
In my area I see a lot of vacant commercial space in areas like strip malls or “main streets” that would make great co-working spaces. These are likely cheaper to lease and are closer to where people live making the commute manageable. As an added bonus it could have a positive effect on the local economy (coffee shops, lunch spots, etc.).
People in suburbs often do have the room for a home office though. And if you prefer to go to an office, it’s probably to work with your coworkers. No chance they want to drive to your suburb.
The people in the city that live in a 1-2 BR apartment definitely don’t have room for home offices.
The real problem for wework is it’s an insanely easy model for LLs to copy and disintermediate them. If it were worthwhile business.
It’s much too expensive at any scale - and subscale, well, people outgrow it.