The Executive Centre’s CEO Paul Salnikow revealed that tenant losses came largely from the airline and tourism industry at the height of the ongoing pandemic. This led the company to let them go rather than holding them to leases they could not afford.
“The weakest clients basically asked to leave because their businesses collapsed and they no longer wanted to remain a client,” said Salnikow. “We’ve learnt as a company that when a business comes to us and says they genuinely can’t sustain payment, it’s better to let them go and eventually look for replacement clients than to go through the palaver of pretending that we’re going to enforce the lease.”
Although the company and the flexible office industry as a whole have experienced major losses over the last several months, Salnikow believes that opportunities are arising for the sector.
Salnikow predicts that companies will begin transitioning from a single permanent workspace to more flexibility as the economy remains uncertain. Rather than committing to long-term leases, companies will want a workspace on a shorter term basis that can allow them to scale up or down as needed.
Salnikow also added that companies were more keen on The Executive Centre’s private offices rather than its coworking services.
