Business as usual for WeWork in Manchester
The flexible workspace provider said its four city centre sites are unaffected by the firm’s decision to file for bankruptcy in the US.
WeWork operates a combined 256,000 sq ft of workspace in Manchester across four sites:
- 1 St Peter’s Square – 40,000 sq ft
- The Hanover Building – 91,000 sq ft
- Dalton Place on John Dalton Street – 65,000 sq ft
- No1 Spinningfields – 60,000 sq ft
While Manchester accounts for all of WeWork’s North West sites, the company has 38 locations in London and one each in Birmingham and Cambridge.
WeWork said none of its locations outside the US and Canada are impacted by the bankruptcy filing, which comes following years of financial trouble.
Once one of the world’s most valuable businesses, WeWork has been hard hit by changing ways of working following the pandemic. In October 2021, the company’s share price hit a record high of $520. Since then, it has plummeted to less than a dollar.
A statement released by the company yesterday said it had “commenced a comprehensive reorganization to strengthen its capital structure and financial performance and best position the company for future success”.
The statement added that the company “maintains the strong support of its key financial stakeholders and has entered into a Restructuring Support Agreement with holders representing approximately 92% of its secured notes to drastically reduce the company’s existing funded debt and expedite the restructuring process”.
This will not last. We Work is doomed.
By Bernard Fender