AUSTIN | Waterline | 1,034 Feet | 73 Floors | T/O

[Xiangyue]

Would anyone tell me has WeWork started construction?

This is a free-lance reporter from China, interested in We Company's real estate investment in Austin...

[Echostatic]

Originally Posted by Xiangyue

Would anyone tell me has WeWork started construction?

Nothing has started construction on this site. There are towers planned, but they may not be built for a variety of reasons.

[Xiangyue]

Originally Posted by Echostatic

Nothing has started construction on this site. There are towers planned, but they may not be built for a variety of reasons.

Thank your for answering me!

For what reasons for example?

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by Xiangyue

Thank your for answering me!

For what reasons for example?

WeWork bought the site less than a year ago, and the towers proposed for the site were already permitted by previous developers. There has never been a formal announcement by WeWork as to whether or not they plan to build the towers as currently permitted or if they were going to build something else.

[Xiangyue]

Originally Posted by The ATX

WeWork bought the site less than a year ago, and the towers proposed for the site were already permitted by previous developers. There has never been a formal announcement by WeWork as to whether or not they plan to build the towers as currently permitted or if they were going to build something else.

Thank you a lot!

[We vs us]

Hoo boy -- if you have 10 minutes, I highly recommend this brutal brutal takedown of WeWork, CEO Neumann, and private equity culture in general. Probably the most salient point for us in the whole thing is how fragile WeWork actually seems, and how exposed the RE markets in major tech metros (like ours) are to a potential Chapter 11 filing by WeWork.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/...m-neumann.html

[Myomi]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Hoo boy -- if you have 10 minutes, I highly recommend this brutal brutal takedown of WeWork, CEO Neumann, and private equity culture in general. Probably the most salient point for us in the whole thing is how fragile WeWork actually seems, and how exposed the RE markets in major tech metros (like ours) are to a potential Chapter 11 filing by WeWork.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/...m-neumann.html

Great article! Thanks for the link.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Hoo boy -- if you have 10 minutes, I highly recommend this brutal brutal takedown of WeWork, CEO Neumann, and private equity culture in general. Probably the most salient point for us in the whole thing is how fragile WeWork actually seems, and how exposed the RE markets in major tech metros (like ours) are to a potential Chapter 11 filing by WeWork.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/...m-neumann.html

WeWork's business model always seemed like some kind of pipe dream (turns out that might be an accurate description in more ways than one) to me. This article confirms that suspicion and then some. I hope the fallout is minimal, but this could be a chilling development in an economic down cycle. Hell, it could even be the cause of an economic down cycle in commercial RE development.

[The ATX]

WeWork's sudden downfall may actual benefit downtown Austin development. Their rumored 1,000,000 Sq. Ft. office project next to IHOP and the former Waller Park Place project are unlikely to happen now because WeWork will probably sell the sites to raise money. That takes a lot of proposed space off the market and will allow a real developer(s) to control the sites. It's amazing how so much prime downtown real estate has had a decades long history of failed development during such amazing boom times.

[StoOgE]

The issue is wework is a major tennant in lots of commercial real estate downtown and around austin.

It could cause a quick drop in demand and rapid oversupply.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

The issue is wework is a major tennant in lots of commercial real estate downtown and around austin.

It could cause a quick drop in demand and rapid oversupply.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking in the immediate term. Lots of suddenly-open coworking space up for grabs.

Medium/longer term, I think The ATX has it -- prime open lots ready for someone to pounce on them.

[AusTxDevelopment]

Originally Posted by StoOgE

The issue is wework is a major tennant in lots of commercial real estate downtown and around austin.

It could cause a quick drop in demand and rapid oversupply.

Not on a massive scale.

WeWork currently has 8 leased spaces in Austin totaling 515,000 square feet, and they are in lease negotiations for an additional 210,000 square feet, which probably won't happen now. 515,000 sf spread out across 8 buildings is not that much in the grand scheme of things. Austin won't be impacted as significantly as New York or Chicago, where WeWork is the largest and second-largest tenant in those cities, respectively.

Edited to add, they are in 7 leased spaces and own their building at 801 Barton Springs.

[urbancore]

It's interesting, I've worked out of Fibercove (co-working on S Lamar) since 2015. I really dig it. I had my own office since 2001 and I will never go back. Most of the people at Fibercove seem to like it and have stayed long term. Parking is a huge plus, obviously.

All this to say, I do believe that co-working is a large part of the future, just maybe not as big and fast as We-Work wanted to grow. Businesses often can't help themselves to grow too big too soon.

I just hope they turn down Nate's inevitable offer....and another one!

[hereinaustin]

WeWork only has about 5M square feet in NYC. That's just a drop in the bucket for the 550M square feet available in NYC.

[The ATX]

After everything that has been going on with WeWork, the 5-year site plan extension for the former WPP towers was just approved. It was actually approved by the PC in July, but it didn't go into affect until the last site plan expired this week.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...ertyrsn=879326

[The ATX]

This has the potential to be a big tower. It's for Block 190, 97 Red River - the site of the parking lot next to IHOP. I'll post it in this thread because last we heard was that this site is part of the WeWork project - the rumored 1,000,000 Sq. Ft. office tower.

This is a zoning change request from CBD-CURE to CBD:

https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...rtyrsn=1136308

[Austin1971]

Originally Posted by The ATX

This has the potential to be a big tower. It's for Block 190, 97 Red River - the site of the parking lot next to IHOP. I'll post it in this thread because last we heard was that this site is part of the WeWork project - the rumored 1,000,000 Sq. Ft. office tower.

This is a zoning change request from CBD-CURE to CBD:

https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...rtyrsn=1136308

Looks like they might have been taking soil samples today. You can zoom in on the Red River Tower webcam.

https://app.oxblue.com/open/endeavor/redrivertower

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by Austin1971

Looks like they might have been taking soil samples today. You can zoom in on the Red River Tower webcam.

https://app.oxblue.com/open/endeavor/redrivertower

Kudos to you for that observation.

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by The ATX

This has the potential to be a big tower. It's for Block 190, 97 Red River - the site of the parking lot next to IHOP. I'll post it in this thread because last we heard was that this site is part of the WeWork project - the rumored 1,000,000 Sq. Ft. office tower.

This is a zoning change request from CBD-CURE to CBD:

https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/perm...rtyrsn=1136308

The predictions of the demise of WeWork may prove to be a bit premature.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by paul78701

The predictions of the demise of WeWork may prove to be a bit premature.

Do we actually know this is in the WeWork property bundle? I know they took over the Waller Park Place lots because of that one article but can’t remember whether this additional lot was part of it.