WeWork shutting down at No1 Spinningfields
The coworking company has notified customers that it is closing down its first location in Manchester.
WeWork signed on for 60,000 sq ft at No1 Spinningfields in 2017. Other locations at 1 St Peter’s Square, The Hanover Building, and Dalton Place followed suit. Place understands that there are no plans to close these other three Manchester locations.
The closure of the No1 Spinningfields branch follows years of financial problems with the company, which ultimately led to WeWork filing for bankruptcy in the US last year.
At the time, the flexible workspace provider said its UK operations were not impacted by the decision. That appears to have changed, with the company rolling out a strategy earlier this week to leave bankruptcy behind and resolve its $4bn outstanding debt obligations.
“As part of WeWork’s efforts to achieve a sustainable capital structure and profitable business to serve our members for the long term, we have made the decision to stop operating at No1 Spinningfields in Manchester,” a WeWork spokesperson said.
“We look forward to continuing to provide our members with flexible space solutions across our other locations in the city and the rest of the UK, which remains a key market for us.”
Manchester has been far too reliant on these types of operators, more of this coming soon
By Anonymous
WeDon’tWork
By GD
Too many places competing for the same market in Manchester without much differentiation, easy for occupiers to keep moving round for the cheapest introductory deal, even firms renting the private offices generally no longer have much of their own stuff, so moving isn’t disruptive.
Also quite difficult to get anything done in the shared spaces as everyone who does hybrid working wants their offices days and meetings mid-week, so packed out, all the meeting rooms booked up (including by sneaky people using up their meeting room credits to avoid paying for a private office), noisy, and long queues for the free coffee. If people are getting the actual work done at home, it ends up being mostly a social space, so you might as well pay for a weekly team lunch instead.
By NoWork
I used to work for WeWork and found a much more affordable coworking space in Sale – better vibes too
By Emily
During my time in that space the overall building management seemed very at odds with Wework, the vibe definitely didn’t gel with some of the other businesses on the upper floors.
By Anonymous