WeWork Rejects 69 Leases In Bankruptcy Filing, Could Exit Nearly 100 More

Coworking giant WeWork could exit as many as 163 leases as part of its bankruptcy restructuring process, about a third of its global portfolio.

In a motion tied to its Monday night Chapter 11 filing, WeWork asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey to immediately reject 69 of its U.S. and Canada leases, the majority of which are in New York City. Most of those WeWork locations were entirely empty, with members already having been informed of the building closures, according to court filings.

But those rejected locations, which span millions of square feet, are only the beginning.

At the bottom of WeWork’s 113-page restructuring plan filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is a business plan dubbed Cleansing Materials that lays out the extent to which it could hack back its portfolio and cut leases further to try and make a profit and become a viable business.

The materials showed that the company had 509 locations globally as of Oct. 12, a figure that doesn`t include its joint ventures in Latin America or Japan. Of those locations, 292 are in the U.S. and Canada, and 217 are in the rest of the world..