WeWork doesn’t own the buildings, they lease space in them. The companies that own the buildings still have the problem of finding tenants, and WeWork let them

WeWork doesn’t own the buildings, they lease space in them. The companies that own the buildings still have the problem of finding tenants, and WeWork let them access smaller tenants and thus a more diverse client portfolio than commercial real estate owners can normally be bothered to service. Leasing to WeWork is a ‘gig economy’ side-hustle for a big office building owner to monetize more of their space, same as driving for Uber works as a side hustle for humans who want to monetize more of their time, or Airbnb lets homeowners side hustle to monetize their spare room. Question is if without WeWork those buildings would continue to offer those services directly, sign on with a competitor platform, or do something else. Maybe now WeWork has shown the opportunity, building owners would be prepared to leverage the platform to access the short term tenant base without requiring that WeWork lease the space first. After all, you don’t have Uber pay to lease your vehicle or AirBnb sign a lease on your spare room before you join up to their platforms. All of which suggests that WeWork actually has a pretty strong case for renegotiating their leases - they have their subletting revenue they can split with the property owner as leverage.