WeWork’s Latest Threat: Old-School Landlords Trying to Copy WeWork

At a dinner two years ago, held in the wine cellar of real-estate executive Jeffrey Hines, managers of the office-building company he heads voiced growing suspicions about WeWork.

WeWork started off as a great customer of Hines Interests LP and other landlords, leasing unused space and renting it to businesses too tiny to be ordinary tenants, Hines executive Charlie Kuntz said in a presentation after dessert, according to several people present.