Digital Education Company Amplify Shrinks Space With 55K-SF Lease in Dumbo
By Liam La Guerre March 28, 2016 1:04 pm
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A digital teaching platform for children, Amplify, is halving its office space in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn.
The company, which makes digital curriculums for schools, inked a 54,875-square-foot lease for Two Trees Management Company’s 55 Washington Street between Water and Front Streets, the landlord informed Commercial Observer. It will continue to occupy the eighth floor of the 337,000-square-foot office property, but will give up the entire 43,700-square-foot ninth floor. A spokeswoman for Two Trees declined to provide the asking rent in the 10-year deal, but asking rents in the building range from $45 per square foot to $50 per square, according to CoStar Group.
Amplify’s downsizing comes after the business had a rough 2015. Amplify was a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation until last year, when the company sold the education based-unit to private investors at an undisclosed amount citing “disappointing” results, according to Bloomberg News. The company also fired 500 employees from its 1,200-person workforce.
Robert Lowe of Cushman & Wakefield, who handled negotiations for Amplify, did not immediately return a request for comment via a spokesman.
Dan Conlon, the managing director of leasing at Two Trees, represented the landlord in-house in the deal. Mr. Conlon said they were proud to keep Amplify in a building that is the “home of some of New York’s most innovative companies.”
Amplify is not the only tech company cutting space at the nine-story building. Online shopping site Etsy is departing from its 80,000-square-foot offices at 55 Washington Street to nearby 117 Adams Street and 55 Prospect Street, as CO previously reported.
Meanwhile, upscale fitness chain Equinox signed a 22,000-square-foot lease to open a center in the building later this year, which CO reported September 2015.
