WeWork Moves To Shutter Its Largest Boston Location
WeWork's largest Boston location is now on the chopping block.
According to a Friday filing in New Jersey bankruptcy court, the coworking giant has filed plans to reject its 241K SF lease at Fortis Property Group's 36-story One Lincoln St. in the city's financial district. The company plans to abandon the lease on May 31.
A WeWork spokesperson wrote in a statement to Bisnow that the company is trying to stay in as many buildings as possible but could not reach an agreement with Fortis over the lease.
"Unfortunately, we have been unable to reach an agreement with our landlord at One Lincoln Street, and it is therefore prudent that we plan for other outcomes, which may include an exit," the spokesperson wrote. "Should we decide to end operations, members will hear from us directly and we will make every effort to support them through the transition to a new location.”
Fortis did not respond to Bisnow's request for comment.
In February, WeWork tried to renegotiate the 15-year lease to reduce the number of floors the company would take up, the Boston Business Journal reported. Fortis claimed that the company paid $356K in rent at the time while also withholding another $1.2M as it was in the process of renegotiating lease terms.
The company signed the lease at the 1.1M SF office building in 2019. The office was supposed to include 4,000 desks across the 24th through 34th floors, but later gave up on the 33rd and 34th floors, according to the BBJ.
At the time, WeWork had just reached over 1M SF in the Greater Boston area and had ambitious plans to grow further. With these new lease rejections, Boston's already struggling office market will continue to face pressures as hundreds of thousands of square feet will reenter the market.
On Thursday, the coworking operator filed plans to reject its 31K SF lease at 711 Atlantic Ave. near South Station. The company has also rejected leases at 40 Water St. and 100 Summer St. totaling 118K SF and closed a third 125K SF location at 200 Berkeley St.
UPDATE, APRIL 26, 6:10 P.M. ET: Comments from a WeWork spokesperson have been added.
