WeWork ending leases at five locations in Vancouver and Toronto

WeWork ending leases at five co-working office locations in Vancouver and Toronto

WeWork co-working office at Bentall Centre in downtown Vancouver. (Shutterstock)

As many as 69 office space leases held by WeWork will be terminated soon as part of the co-working giant’s bankruptcy proceedings, according to bankruptcy protection filings made in New Jersey today.

The overwhelming majority of these locations are in the United States, including more than half — 38 to be specific — within New York City.

Five of the locations eyed on this initial chocking block wave are located in Canada, entailing three locations in Metro Vancouver and two locations in Toronto. Going into the pandemic, both markets had some of the lowest leased office vacancy rates in Canada and the United States, which fuelled the demand for co-working office spaces.

You might also like:

The filing is in large part an attempt to end the leases early at these locations to slow the major source of bleed on the company’s cash flow.

These Chapter 11 proceedings “rationalize their lease portfolio, right-size their balance sheet, and position WeWork for sustainable, long-term growth,” reads the filing.

This includes the location at 1045 Howe Street in downtown Vancouver, which is a 54,000 sq ft space over four levels that opened in December 2019. It is immediately south of the Provincial Law Courts, and just west of the Granville Strip.

Another commitment WeWork is leaving is its space in BentallGreenOak’s future 32-storey B6 office tower at 1090 West Pender Street in downtown Vancouver, which is slated to reach completion this winter. In Summer 2019, WeWork had plans to take up as much as 170,000 sq ft across 10 floors, but this was later scaled back to about 100,000 sq ft.

The third Metro Vancouver lease that is eyed for termination is at The Amazing Brentwood mall in Burnaby. This location, first announced in April 2019, was to be situated within four office floors in the base podium of the mall redevelopment’s Tower 3, which was completed in the middle of the pandemic in 2021. But the space was never furnished, and kept vacant.

Former WeWork location at 1045 Howe Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Never-opened WeWork location in the office base podium of The Amazing Brentwood’s tower 3. (Google Maps)

Artistic rendering of the B6 office tower at 1090 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/BentallGreenOak)

Colin Scarlett, a vice chairman of Colliers International Canada, told Daily Hive Urbanized that at its peak, WeWork had commitments on over 700,000 sq ft of office space leases in Metro Vancouver.

The three Metro Vancouver locations now being shed represent roughly 200,000 sq ft of office space.

“The market has been aware of many of these spaces for a while and isn’t surprised. It also represents a very small portion of the total inventory of space in Metro Vancouver,” Scarlett told Daily Hive Urbanized.

But Scarlett says this limits flexible options where people can rent for a short term with no capital cost.

“The demand for co-working has never been stronger and Vancouver performs disproportionately better than most global markets in this regard,” he said.

At the moment, WeWork is retaining six existing active locations in Metro Vancouver. This includes three downtown Vancouver locations — its significant spaces within the Bentall II and Bental III office towers, which played host to temporary years-long spaces for Amazon, as well as 333 Seymour Street just across from Waterfront Station.

It will also retain its location at the Main Alley tech campus at 2015 Main Street in Mount Pleasant, and the Marine Gateway office tower next to Marine Drive Station in South Vancouver.

Additionally, the Metrotown location within the Station Square redevelopment’s new office space will also be kept.

As for the planned attrition in the Toronto market, WeWork is ending its lease at 171 East Liberty Street in the Liberty Village district, and 292 Adelaide Street West in downtown Toronto.

WeWork currently intends to retain seven active locations within Toronto, including its other Liberty Village location at 1050 King Street West. The other existing locations that will be kept are all located in downtown Toronto, including 1 University Avenue, 100 University Avenue, 240 Richmond Street West, Scotia Plaza, 357 Bay Street, and Hudson’s Bay Queen Street, which took over the upper two floors of the department store’s flagship location in July 2019.

As part of its broader pre-pandemic partnership with the Hudson’s Bay Company, WeWork also previously had plans to lease the upper floors of Hudson’s Bay flagship store in downtown Vancouver, but it never went ahead.

171 East Liberty Street Toronto Liberty Village

171 East Liberty Street, Toronto. (Google Maps)

292 Adelaide Street West, Toronto. (Google Maps)

You might also like: