Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Animats 2292 days ago
"The development won’t affect the $5 billion lifeline SoftBank agreed to give WeWork directly—cash the startup badly needed then as it ran out of runway, and which it is likely to continue to need as the worsening coronavirus outbreak empties out its desks."

Er, yes. WeWork is dead until there is a COVID-19 vaccine. Tightly packing random people is out for now.
1 comments
godzillabrennus 2292 days ago
Largest corporate tenant in New York City.

We are just starting to see the first wave of this crash.

link
wayoutthere 2291 days ago
Even after we start to recover; how many companies are going to keep as much floor space as they had before? Remote work is here to stay.

This is going to turn into a global commercial real estate crash in 6 months, no doubt.

link
toomuchtodo 2291 days ago
Fantastic. Finally some sanity about disintermediating work from locality.

Sidenote: Carl Icahn is currently shorting commercial RE, so I think you're right.

link
wayoutthere 2291 days ago
Paradoxically, I think that the post-crash recovery will be a great opportunity for WeWork (if they survive). My guess is that many companies will outright close most of their branch offices, shifting people / teams that want or need to be in an office to coworking spaces.

This movement will also have reductive effects on carbon emissions, so despite the coming carnage in commercial real estate, it's the right direction. Hopefully a lot of that square footage can be converted to residential, because there is still an affordable housing shortage...

link
toomuchtodo 2291 days ago
If you can work from anywhere, that helps alleviate the affordable housing shortage. Move where the housing is cheap. Not everyone is going to get to live in Manhattan or SF proper.
link
wayoutthere 2291 days ago
This may be somewhat cynical, but housing policy in the US continues to be one of the main tools in systemic oppression of minorities. There are powerful segments of the population who are fine with the status quo and will not be happy if "they" move in next door. So they will do everything they can to "keep property values high" in suburban neighborhoods -- which has historically been a dog whistle for "keep minorities out" -- and in direct opposition to creating more affordable housing.
link