Leading collaborative work space provider WeWork has signed a 16-year lease deal for 120,537 square feet spanning eight full floors at 222 Broadway.
The 32-story, 756,138-square-foot, class A modernist office tower was built in 1961 on three-quarters of an acre in Lower Manhattan's Insurance District submarket, between Fulton and Ann Streets just blocks from the Fulton Street Transportation Center and Calatrava Path Station at the World Trade Center, in an area becoming known as Downtown North.
L&L Holding Company and Beacon Capital Partners acquired the building last year for $230 million in a sale/leaseback deal with Bank of America, according to CoStar data. The former owner still retains nearly 500,000 square feet there, leaving just five floors of
office space and the retail portion available for lease. Ownership is planning a renovation of the building's lobby, elevators and ground-floor
retail space, designed by Gensler.
Founded in 2010, WeWork will establish its seventh Manhattan location when it opens at 222 Broadway this summer. The company provides flexible office space rentals for new tech and media companies, emerging entrepreneurs, freelancers, professionals, and a wide range of small businesses.
"WeWork is a prime example of the entrepreneurial type firms who are discovering Downtown Manhattan’s vitality in terms of transportation, live/work opportunities, proximity to dining and shopping and other exciting features," stated David Levinson, CEO of L&L Holding Company LLC, a privately-owned investment company with a portfolio exceeding 6 million square feet. "As startups and tech companies continue to migrate from Midtown South to Downtown, this becomes a very important transaction that highlights the culture shift taking place in the Financial District."
David Berkey and Andrew Wiener of L&L Holding Company represented building ownership in-house. Mark Lapidus provided in-house representation to the tenant, while Sean Black with Jones Lang LaSalle provided consultation services on the deal.