Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Cat Johnson – Coworking Marketing Maven
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak – Competitive Advantage
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Jeremy Fennema – Tech Innovation Alchemist
Jeff Reinstein, CEO of Premier Workspaces, started running the shared workspace company in 2002. The company started by acquiring American Office Centers, which filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Since then, Premier has acquired and repositioned over 74 shared workspace centers, most of whom were struggling.
More recently, Premier took over seven coworking spaces from a company called Real Office Centers (ROC), who had a similar feel to WeWork. Premier was able to retain its employees and clients, as well as stabilize each location. The company then repositioned ROC so it could sign long-term market leases that ensured it would make a profit.
Clearly, Reinstein has insight on how companies like WeWork should move forward. This starts with halting projects in development where construction has not started. Then, laying off all acquisition and new business employees, as well as selling or shutting down non-coworking brands.
Selling off any flashy company expenses, such as the $60 million Gulfstream G650, is another step in the right direction for WeWork.
Renegotiating master leases where the company is losing money may also be necessary, which could mean reducing the size or closing some locations and relocating members.
Additionally, WeWork should boost its membership fees, as well as cut its staff to around 2,500 employees.
Lastly, if Reinstein was CEO of WeWork and had no landlords wanting to work on restructuring leases, he would put the company into bankruptcy in order to force landlords to renegotiate. Based on Reinstein’s experience, WeWork may want to take note of Premier’s playbook in order to stay afloat.
