WeWork Leases Entire Office Area of SL Green’s 609 Fifth Ave.

NEW YORK CITY—WeWork has signed a deal with SL Green to lease the entire office portion of the building at 609 Fifth Ave., between E. 48th and E. 49th streets. The co-working, flexible office space providers will occupy 135,000 square feet, totaling eleven floors spanning the third through the 13th, in the Midtown building. They plan to open the location in the first half of 2019.

Granit Gjonbalaj, chief development officer at WeWork, says the company is pleased to be strengthening their partnership with SL Green by leasing the new space. “This is an iconic location, and when the opportunity to take over the entire office space presented itself, we simply could not say no,” says Gjonbalaj. “Given the demand we are seeing in the area, we have no doubt that our fast-growing community will be a perfect fit for this newly-revitalized building.”

A WeWork spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that the fact that the largest office landlords in New York are entering into deals with the company represents their confidence in WeWork’s business and business model.

“We’re delighted to welcome WeWork to 609 Fifth Ave. as we strategically expand our relationship,” says Steven Durels, EVP and director of leasing and real property at SL Green. “Our redevelopment design which includes relocation of the existing Fifth Avenue lobby together with the entire elevator core to the 49th Street side of the building added high value retail space while also creating an enhanced office environment.”

The largest floor plate in the building extends to approximately 15,375 square feet.

This latest lease follows news from last week that SoftBank Group is in talks with WeWork to take a majority stake in the co-working office company. The investment could total between $15 billion and $20 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In addition, the real estate firm Transwestern’s Manhattan Office Market report for Q3 2018 notes that co-working drove the market. It accounted for approximately 20% of the seven million square feet leased during Q3. Transwestern reports that year-to-date office leases have reached 24.2 million square feet in Manhattan with 15% of that total attributed to co-working. Co-working firms closed 14 leases in the last quarter and more than 30 for 2018 to-date. Several of the leases covered substantial spaces. More specifically, in Q3, eight co-working deals were for more than 50,000 square feet, while four exceeded 100,000 square feet.

JLL’s Peter Riguardi, Michael Berg and Howard Hersch represented WeWork in the transaction.