Bill Baldwin, managing principle of the global
real estate advisory firm Cresa, said that for
the moment, he prefers not to direct clients
to WeWork, saying he is not convinced the
company can avoid defaulting on leases.
“That’s a pretty scary situation to put a client
of ours in,” said Baldwin, whose firm represents
occupiers in real estate transactions.
Major real estate companies that lease to WeWork
have emphasized the high occupancy rates of its
established offices, while sounding more cautious
about the prospects for newer spaces.
For instance, two WeWork subsidiaries that
had planned to move into a building on
Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan may
no longer do so, according to Nelson Mills, CEO
of Columbia Property Trust, which owns the
building and leases its office space to WeWork.
WeWork will consequently have to fill the space
with other tenants.
For now, many of WeWork’s members are
rooting for the company, including Axel
Hellman, whose tech start-up OurBus found its
branding designer at the WeWork office space
on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
“It’s easy to poke fun at the motivational signage
and fruit water,” Hellman said. “But in reality, it’s
the network available to us through WeWork
and the flexibility they offer that makes the
company valuable to us.”