December 12, 2023

WeWork’s Biggest Landlords Balk At SoftBank’s Proposed Bankruptcy Financing Plan

Some of WeWork’s most prominent landlords are objecting to the way the coworking company’s majority owner has laid out plans to fund its bankruptcy proceedings.

In a wave of objections filed Thursday afternoon, attorneys for office giants including Boston Properties, Brookfield Properties and Starwood Capital asked a judge to reject WeWork’s motion for debtor-in-possession financing. The attorneys argue that SoftBank Group, as the proposed DIP lender, is leaving landlords too exposed in the event that WeWork’s Chapter 11 restructuring falls apart.

Placeholder

Bisnow/Ethan Rothstein

The WeWork location in Carr Properties’ Midtown Center at 100 15th St. in Washington, D.C.

Landlords of more than 50 WeWork locations across the country filed the objections to the bankrupt firm’s proposal, which would allow SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund to use letters of credit it bankrolled for WeWork’s leases as funds during the Chapter 11 restructuring.

“While Objecting Landlords, along with … other landlord groups, have attempted to negotiate a consensual resolution of the issues presented by the Motions, to date, such efforts have not resulted in an agreement, necessitating this Objection,” attorneys at Kelley Drye & Warren, representing Brookfield and Starwood, among other landlords, wrote in a court filing.

Douglas Rosner, a bankruptcy attorney at

Read the rest