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WeWork is reportedly slashing rent for some tenants who will agree to sign up for long-term deals as the coronavirus crisis continues to rage in the company’s biggest market: New York City.
WeWork is offering discounts as high as half of normal rent, Bloomberg reports. Though incentives are not new to WeWork, the company has adjusted the program since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, per the publication.
Unlike many of its counterparts, WeWork has opted to keep its sites open through this crisis — even reportedly offering a $100-a-day bonus for staff to keep going in to keep locations up and running.
These new discounts are being offered to U.S. tenants who normally take the space monthly but would agree to sign up for two or three months, per Bloomberg. A quarter of WeWork leases were month-to-month as of June.
Businesses all over the world are grappling with how to deal with the pandemic, which has dismantled almost every part of daily life. Flexible office providers have taken a big hit: Convene has furloughed or laid off more than 500 people and closed all its U.S. locations, and Knotel last week slashed its personnel roughly by half, with CEO Amol Sarva saying in a statement that "business as usual is over."
WeWork has laid off thousands in recent months, but those moves were directed at shoring up its finances after it lost tens of billions in value last year following its failure to go public. New CEO Sandeep Mathrani, a former Vornado and Brookfield executive, has a mandate to cut costs and achieve long-term profitability. He is reportedly asking WeWork's biggest landlords for reductions in rent by up to 30%.
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