Following a year that saw Greater Boston vacancy rates drop to near-historic lows, rents in downtown Boston increase by over 15 percent year-over-year, and tech companies continue to absorb significant space in prime locations, what trends and shifts in the market can we expect to see in 2020?
With Thanksgiving just days away, it’s time for our annual turkey shoot, where we let loose a healthy dose of verbal buckshot on everything from projects gone wrong to spineless pols and NIMBY neighbors.
Beneath the work-and-play cheer, there’s unease as WeWork embarks on a painful restructuring that will include thousands of layoffs as early as this week.
There is something to be said for running your business for the long haul and following basic business principles as fundamental as watching your expenses. Or when taking a gamble, make sure you can afford to lose everything, without impacting your employees.
Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. tumbled into losses in the last quarter as its earnings were hammered by money-losing investments, including a bailout for office-space sharing startup WeWork.
WeWork’s woes are substantial enough that some analysts say they could derail the investment ambitions of SoftBank’s mammoth Vision Fund. WeWork is the largest player in Boston’s coworking scene, and leases substantial space in the downtown office market.
WeWork is accepting a $5 billion rescue package that hands control of the company to Japanese tech giant SoftBank and pushes aside co-founder Adam Neumann, but the company still has a long road ahead of it.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that WeWork is being taken over by the Japanese tech conglomerate that invested billions in the company before its botched effort to go public.
If WeWork’s IPO troubles turn into bankruptcy and departure from the scene at the same time as a broader economic downturn, the downtown commercial real estate market could take a dramatic turn, researchers warn.
An office tower that’s recently attracted new tech, life science and coworking tenants has been sold to Rockpoint Group, in its second big-ticket acquisition in downtown Boston in the past month.
WeWork’s new leaders shelved plans to enter the stock market Monday as they sought to repair the battered image of a company that appeared to revolutionize the office-rental industry and was poised just weeks ago to go public with a valuation of nearly $50 billion.
After its CEO was unceremoniously shown the door last week, coworking giant WeWork said it plans to continue signing new leases, but at a slower rate than its previous breakneck pace.
Think of incubators as the “WeWork of the life sciences industry.” They provide a turnkey lab environment that can range from a single lab bench to a large, private lab that accommodates 100 people.
WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is stepping aside amid questions about the company’s finances, but will remain on its board as non-executive chairman. The company leases over 1.6 million square feet of office space in Boston and Cambridge.
Some members of the WeWork board are unhappy with its leadership and plan to push WeWork CEO Adam Neumann to give up that title, according to several media reports.
WeWork is pushing back its public debut as investor confidence appears to grow shaky in the office share company that had recently been valued at around $47 billion.
WeWork’s troubled IPO isn’t slowing its expansion in Boston, with plans to lease approximately 87,000 square feet at a downtown tower.
McCall & Almy’s Julie Gray works with big institutional clients, such as Partners Healthcare, Northeastern University and Berklee College of Music, on real estate projects that are changing the physical environment of Greater Boston for decades. Gray has brokered transactions topping 800,000 square feet in the past year alone.
Ryan Enright has been active in Boston commercial real estate since 1997, and during that time he’s brokered more than 800 transactions in the core downtown neighborhoods. Enright joined JLL Boston’s downtown leasing team nearly five years ago, after 17 years representing Equity Office Properties’ Boston portfolio.
