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The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

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Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#81
post #57

I absolutely hate WeWork. Due to the nature of our work we have to meet with people there in various locations, the security on-site is laughable but at the same time they make you jump through all kinds of hoops such as photographing you face-first on entry, easily defeated by blocking the camera. The facilities are noisy, distracting, totally unusable to discuss anything that is even remotely confidential and there…

The photograph isn’t for security, it’s to send a notification to the person you’re visiting, they don’t have a problem with you choosing not to be photographed if you’re not comfortable with it. The notification includes your name and the picture because the wework member is expected to walk into the common area and find you, which is difficult if the wework member doesn’t know what you look like!

They're not 'wework members' they are representatives of your customers aka the tenants. Somehow this problem does not appear in all the other reception areas of all the other companies in the whole bloody world. So no, it is not for the person you're visiting. Besides that, there is no consent trail for the images to begin with nor is there any indication of where they get sent, stored and who has access to them. It's security theater at best and a security risk at worst.

Besides that the access/egress system is so bad you might as well walk straight through without reporting your presence. WeSuck.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the recession deepens, WeWork will surely eventually implode. I can see it now: vast swathes of empty commercial real estate. If you thought ghost malls were bad, wait until you see ghost WeWorks.

> As the recession deepens Deepens ? We're not in a recession, and we haven't been for nearly a decade. It's true that, by historical standards, we're arguably overdue for a recession, but the word "recession" is precisely defined, and the US unambiguously does not meet the criteria for being in one.

My limited understanding is that the start of a recession is only officially recognized in hindsight. That doesn't mean we are in one, but I don't think we can necessarily say that we're not.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#83
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have any familiarity with CBRE, then you know that a shared office environment is totally against everything CBRE does CBRE Launches New Coworking Brand, Hana: https://allwork.space/2018/11/cbre-launches-new-coworking-br...

How does this fit with https://www.hanahaus.com which already exists? (note: I've never used Hana though I walked through the one in Palo Alto just out of curiosity, and it simply looked like a random co working space).

HANA Haus is named after SAP's database product HANA. It's more of a coffee get together than a co-working space (unless they've deliberately changed it since I've last been there).

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#84
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which sets them up for WeWork subsidiaries to default on any building that's more than X months old and unprofitable. That's a terrible deal for the landlord, if the landlord priced it as a 15 year deal instead of a one year. Absolutely great for WeWork. Terrible for anyone who wants offices, since WeWork will sit on a large chunk of the market.

If WeWork subsidiaries were defaulting right and left they wouldn't be able to get these deals. They aren't, so they are. Your comment seems to imply that the landowner has no choice.

Agreed. If, and when, they default it would most likely make news in the real estate / tech sector. Something seems too good to be true here but so far they haven't closed any locations.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#85
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairly certain at least some of those debts can get passed on to your estate and/or children.

Your estate is just your assets, so yes to that. Your children, not in the US. You can never involuntarily inherit debt in the US. You have to be a co-signer to begin with.

In some states for certain medical expenses family members can be forced to assume the debt.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#86
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must be nice to be an immortal corporation that can just spin off any debts you don't want to pay, while mere mortals with finite lifespans and education debt and medical debt and credit card debt cannot unless we die.

What if I told you that you can create and own corporations too?

Your comment seems disingenuous. What if I told you that piercing the corporate veil is regular and common when a single member LLC can't pay its debt, and an LLC isn't eligible for things humans need to improve their futures like student loans anyway?

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I told you that you can create and own corporations too?

Your comment seems disingenuous. What if I told you that piercing the corporate veil is regular and common when a single member LLC can't pay its debt, and an LLC isn't eligible for things humans need to improve their futures like student loans anyway?

Fantasy stories intrigue us mortals. But we do see big companies or llcs dodge responsibility.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I told you that you can create and own corporations too?

Your comment seems disingenuous. What if I told you that piercing the corporate veil is regular and common when a single member LLC can't pay its debt, and an LLC isn't eligible for things humans need to improve their futures like student loans anyway?

"Disingenuous" is a pretty high charge. Not everyone knows about piercing the corporate veil.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#89
post #51

I absolutely hate WeWork. Due to the nature of our work we have to meet with people there in various locations, the security on-site is laughable but at the same time they make you jump through all kinds of hoops such as photographing you face-first on entry, easily defeated by blocking the camera. The facilities are noisy, distracting, totally unusable to discuss anything that is even remotely confidential and there…

Strong agree. My current company was in one for a few months before we got our own space, and it was one of the most miserable office experiences I've ever encountered. Almost everything about it sucked- * Their network was grossly misconfigured and directed traffic to the least used access point, regardless of the distance. It was a regular morning ritual for people in my office to toggle their wifi on and off repea…

My experience matches.

The lazy jerks running 6th and Market let one of the two elevators sit broken for months. Free 20 minute break mid-day to get downstairs and again to get back upstairs! Who doesn't want takeout to take over an hour every day! The wework folks renting 6 floors just acted like there was nothing at all they could do to get the building to have sufficient working elevators.

And the noise. Hard wood floors. No carpets. Glass walls. One woman wearing heels goes clack-clack-clack up and down the hall.

Bathrooms with no vent fans.

Running a remodel of the floor above us while we were supposed to be working in the office. So much noise you could feel the vibrations.

Same fight for phone rooms.

It was utterly awful. But hey, free beer!

We moved out when employees threatened to quit.

Re: The Property Industry Is Falling Out of Love with WeWork

#90
post #66

WeWork is on their way to collapsing. The company is cult like with founders who have a god complex. Softbank and Saudi funding have saved them from collapse.

When I was running a coworking space in Berlin back in the day WeWork were just getting started. I went to NYC on a holiday and decided to contact all the coworking spaces for networking purposes. Miguel McKelvey one of 2 cofounders of WeWork was the only person to get back to me. I found him exceptionally humble and approachable. Not sure where you got your impressions on the founders from?
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