Former Facebook NYC Founder Moves Start-Up to 2 Gansevoort St.

NEW YORK CITY—Serkan Piantino is bringing his new start-up company, Spell, Inc., to the William Kaufman Organization’s 2 Gansevoort St. in the Meatpacking District. Piantino founded Facebook’s New York office and was a co-founder of Facebook’s artificial intelligence research team.

Spell is the first tenant to sign a lease with WKO for one of its Swivel office suites, and is renting space on the seventh floor. The asking rents were $95 per square foot. The 3,604 square-foot, pre-built unit has a rotating wall and full access to Swivel’s shared area that includes an open pantry with a fresh, full-stocked micro-market, private meeting rooms, a Wi-Fi enabled lounge, conference room, a virtual receptionist system, bike storage and lockers.

Founded in 1924, WKO may be one of the first well-established real estate firms providing an organized, strategic response to the growing market for flexible, smaller workspace providers, by offering its Swivel options.

In August, Spell will move from its current location at 100 Avenue of the Americas, between Watts and Grand streets in SoHo. The company will bring 12 employees including engineers, designers and operations experts to the new location. In 2017, Piantino started Spell, which specializes in developing artificial intelligence and deep learning infrastructure.

“Spell is the exact type of tenant we envisioned for Swivel when we launched this project at 2 Gansevoort Street earlier this year,” says Jonathan Kaufman Iger, CEO of WKO and Sage Realty Corporation, WKO’s leasing and management division. Iger also chairs the board of directors of the Meatpacking District’s business improvement district. “We believe Serkan and his talented team of engineers are a perfect fit for the Meatpacking District, which is home to an amazing workforce that is creating one of the most unique neighborhoods in the five boroughs today.”

Piantino noted Spell’s desire to establish its headquarters in the growing tech community in the neighborhood. Underscoring several factors that real estate professionals often list for attracting talent, Piantino says, “2 Gansevoort is in an appealing neighborhood, giving employees access to green space, the waterfront, peace and quiet, and many quality food options. Moving Spell to the area is exciting for our company’s culture and our employees’ commutes. “

Originally constructed in 1912 as a warehouse and trade school, the nine-story, 210,000 square-foot, landmarked office building stands at the intersection of West 13th, Horatio and Gansevoort streets in the Greenwich Village Historic District. WKO acquired the property in 1948. WKO recently received $97 million in refinancing secured by 2 Gansevoort.

Last year, the real estate company renovated the building’s lobby and front entrance, which features a rotating art exhibition called the Gallery at 2 Gansevoort Street, designed by Fogarty Finger. Other improvements included a new security desk; modernization of the elevator mechanics as well as aesthetics; window replacements; and a new HVAC system. Current building tenants include Theory, Kobalt Music and Coronado Biosciences.

Michael Lenchner, VP and director of leasing at Sage, represented both WKO and Spell in the recent leasing transaction. WKO is actively negotiating leases for the remaining Swivel offices and plans to launch additional Swivel suites at its locations in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. The spaces, which range from 3,604 to 5,677 rentable square feet, are available immediately.