Wework is politely reminding landlords that signed leases with them that they are idiots and now are trapped with no recourse. The rent comes through some uncapitalized subsidiaries so they have no claim on core wework assets without heavy litigation.
...which matters little as WeWork's core assets are a hole in the ground at this point.
Well it does because if they could go after the the core asset then the landlord could force then into liquidation and restructuring a lot faster. This way they can exist as a zombie for years to come and do things on their own terms. They may actually end up alright after they reduce their leases and debt though aggressive cram downs and restructuring, woe to anyone that is owed money or has them as a tenant though. I would assume that whoever their current landlords are will also go bankrupt and their creditors will get stuck with the losses.
Yeah - but what I'm saying is liquidating WeWork is going to be a grindingly unsatisfying exercise. Even their S1 lists $27b in assets and $24b in liabilities and that doesn't include their $47b in leases due. They go Tango Uniform and there's $47b in leases looking for $3b in remedy of which the big stuff has already been sold off. The fact that their core is well-protected is fundamentally irrelevant if their bank vault is empty anyway.
I think there will be a lot of simply assuming the contracts. WeWork was predicated on this idea that you had a "membership" that allowed you to jet around to all these other offices all over the place and I think that business model is done for a few years at least. At which point you recognize that your landlord isn't WeWork, it's whoever actually owns the building. I've probably linked these guys a half-dozen times; subleasing isn't fucking rocket science.
THIS. WeWork goes away, but the tenants stay and begin paying slightly higher rents to the building owners. Because the owners don't want the space vacant, anyone paying WeWork's rent can afford a little more, and the building landlord just hires someone to manage all the "small" contracts that were too small for them to consider as renters before. That is, once people are allowed to go inside the buildings again....