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Anyone use wework now? What will you do if it goes away? Coffee shops?

kenhwang 3y ago
Coworking spaces has been commoditized. Every major metro area has a dozen local companies offering coworking spaces. So unless you need the same membership to work in very different locations, you'd just join any of the local companies near home.
- pclmulqdq 3y ago
  Coworking space has always been a commodity. It existed before WeWork, too. WeWork just made it cool.
  - makestuff 3y ago
    Yeah I remember Regus office space commercials well before WeWork offering single offices/flex spaces. They even had shared reception you could subscribe to.
- jillesvangurp 3y ago
  Exactly, and more is on the way. There are a lot of empty / underused offices right now and the easiest way to try to monetize all that real estate is co-working, flex desks, sub leases, and other forms of short term usage. If it's empty, it's not generating any money. Finding space is easy right now. I think prices are still a bit inflated given the amount of vacancies. They have to come down a lot for that to start changing. But you can get some really nice bar gains if you invest a bit of time. Over the next few years, a lot of leases are coming up for renewal and I'm guessing a lot of companies are looking to reduce the amount of square meters they have and what they pay for that.
  - Probiotic6081 3y ago
    They should be converted to apartments instead imo.
    - usrusr 3y ago
      Apartment buildings have very different surface to volume ratios. There are only so many square feet you want per window, assuming conventional layouts. Of course there's always the "disused industrial floor loft" approach to living, but that requires exceptionally rich tenants and/or exceptionally low rent expectations. Chances are most office buildings have higher operational costs than the rent that could be collected that way. We'll see a lot of decay, building operators trying to make ends meet with ever cheaper office tenants, before informal factory floor type conversions happen. Wouldn't be surprised if, very much unlike those old factory floors, buildings are well beyond effective service life by then. (because architecture has become depressingly good at being on schedule in terms of design service life)
dopeboy 3y ago
Used it for the past two years. Was a wonderful experience - everything I wanted out of a coworking space. I'll probably split my time between indie coworking spots and "unofficial" coworking spots (in SF, Celo space).
- mareko 3y ago
  Glad you like the Celo space
  - dopeboy 3y ago
    Thanks for making it a welcome space for SF tech folks.
httpz 3y ago
It's a Chapter 11 bankruptcy so likely they're not all shutting down. Some locations will probably renegotiate the lease term with the landlords and the profitable ones will stay open. With the office vacancy rate rising, I'm sure some landlords want to keep them.
cjohnson318 3y ago
I met a client in a co-working space in Midland TX of all places, and it was great. We could grab coffee in the open area, we had a private room with a big screen, whiteboards, it was quiet, convenient, everything you could ask for.
deleted 3y ago
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paulcole 3y ago
I dislike remote work and really dislike working from my apartment and coffee shops. I really really like WeWork. If WeWork went away completely and I couldn’t find a local coworking space that I really liked it’d probably be the impetus I need to find a job at an on-site only company.
- otteromkram 3y ago
  If you have a remote job you don't like, switch to on-site now. There's plenty, plen of people who love remote work, so it would be net positive if your job became available.
  - paulcole 3y ago
    I didn’t say I had a remote job I didn’t like. I have a job I like a lot. But it’s a remote job. I can put up with the remoteness for now but if I didn’t have a good place to work that I enjoyed working from, I’d reconsider my options.

Coworking spaces has been commoditized. Every major metro area has a dozen local companies offering coworking spaces. So unless you need the same membership to work in very different locations, you'd just join any of the local companies near home.

pclmulqdq 3y ago
Coworking space has always been a commodity. It existed before WeWork, too. WeWork just made it cool.
- makestuff 3y ago
  Yeah I remember Regus office space commercials well before WeWork offering single offices/flex spaces. They even had shared reception you could subscribe to.
jillesvangurp 3y ago
Exactly, and more is on the way. There are a lot of empty / underused offices right now and the easiest way to try to monetize all that real estate is co-working, flex desks, sub leases, and other forms of short term usage. If it's empty, it's not generating any money. Finding space is easy right now. I think prices are still a bit inflated given the amount of vacancies. They have to come down a lot for that to start changing. But you can get some really nice bar gains if you invest a bit of time. Over the next few years, a lot of leases are coming up for renewal and I'm guessing a lot of companies are looking to reduce the amount of square meters they have and what they pay for that.
- Probiotic6081 3y ago
  They should be converted to apartments instead imo.
  - usrusr 3y ago
    Apartment buildings have very different surface to volume ratios. There are only so many square feet you want per window, assuming conventional layouts. Of course there's always the "disused industrial floor loft" approach to living, but that requires exceptionally rich tenants and/or exceptionally low rent expectations. Chances are most office buildings have higher operational costs than the rent that could be collected that way. We'll see a lot of decay, building operators trying to make ends meet with ever cheaper office tenants, before informal factory floor type conversions happen. Wouldn't be surprised if, very much unlike those old factory floors, buildings are well beyond effective service life by then. (because architecture has become depressingly good at being on schedule in terms of design service life)

dopeboy 3y ago

Used it for the past two years. Was a wonderful experience - everything I wanted out of a coworking space. I'll probably split my time between indie coworking spots and "unofficial" coworking spots (in SF, Celo space).

mareko 3y ago
Glad you like the Celo space
- dopeboy 3y ago
  Thanks for making it a welcome space for SF tech folks.

httpz 3y ago

It's a Chapter 11 bankruptcy so likely they're not all shutting down. Some locations will probably renegotiate the lease term with the landlords and the profitable ones will stay open. With the office vacancy rate rising, I'm sure some landlords want to keep them.

cjohnson318 3y ago

I met a client in a co-working space in Midland TX of all places, and it was great. We could grab coffee in the open area, we had a private room with a big screen, whiteboards, it was quiet, convenient, everything you could ask for.

deleted 3y ago

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paulcole 3y ago

I dislike remote work and really dislike working from my apartment and coffee shops. I really really like WeWork. If WeWork went away completely and I couldn’t find a local coworking space that I really liked it’d probably be the impetus I need to find a job at an on-site only company.

otteromkram 3y ago
If you have a remote job you don't like, switch to on-site now. There's plenty, plen of people who love remote work, so it would be net positive if your job became available.
- paulcole 3y ago
  I didn’t say I had a remote job I didn’t like. I have a job I like a lot. But it’s a remote job. I can put up with the remoteness for now but if I didn’t have a good place to work that I enjoyed working from, I’d reconsider my options.