Opportunities Rise From WeWork’s Woes

WeWork helped prove the value in flexible offices. Now, after the company’s woes and the SoftBank bailout, Zach Aarons has no doubt other firms will step in to fill any void in the market.

“Another flex office provider could come in and take the leases on the cheap or the landlords will take back the keys and try and do it themselves,” Aarons, a partner at PropTech Venture Capital fund MetaProp, tells GlobeSt.com. “I think everybody in CRE is looking at what opportunities are there.”

Aarons also sees opportunities in the company’s publicly traded debt in Israel. “Now that SoftBank is bailing out the equity, does that debt trade back up to par?,” he says. “There have to be some people who came in and bought that debt at 80 cents on the dollar. Is that debt money good? What’s the cross collateralization or are they going to default on a bunch of leases? If so, is there a real estate opportunity embedded in that as well?”

Before WeWork’s woes, big commercial landlords, such as Hines and Tishman Speyer, saw opportunity in the flexible space. But Aarons still thinks they have obstacles to overcome, even with WeWork’s troubles.

“Everybody is either spinning up their own brands, buying a company, spinning out their own brand or partnering with any operator that’s not named WeWork,” Aarons says. “There is a flurry of activity.” Aarons doesn’t see everyone flocking to the big landlords for flex space.

“I think the purpose of flexible office space is that it’s flexible,” Aarons says. “I think the customer for that is less discerning about whether the company is going to be out of business or not.”

The calculus could change for midsize companies. “If you’re a mid-sized company and you want someone to take care of your real estate for you and you can’t afford to hire Cushman and Wakefield [Global Occupier Services], do you go to Knotel, back to WeWork or somewhere where the landlord’s credit is backing the venture.”

In fact, Aarons says much of the appeal of WeWork is the fact that a worker or company could find an office around the globe. “You can book an office anywhere in the world right now in like five in like five minutes,” he says. “If you want to have a sales team somewhere quickly, it’s easy.”

A flexible office provider that rents space from multiple companies, such as WeWork, can offer office spaces around the world.

“The unfortunate truth about these newer concepts started by the incumbents is that they just don’t have that many locations,” Aarons says. “That value-add idea [of booking around the globe] goes away” With the flexibility and number of options around the globe, Aarons says WeWork could still be a viable option for businesses.

“It [WeWork’s issues] would definitely come into your consideration, but I don’t know how many deals they’re going to lose because of it,” he says.