Wedding Planning Startup Zola Ties the Knot at 7 WTC
By Rebecca Baird-Remba January 17, 2019 4:05 pm
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Online wedding planning service and e-retailer Zola is taking over an entire floor at 7 World Trade Center.
The five-year-old company inked an 11-year, 30,000-square-foot lease for the 39th floor of the 52-story office tower, landlord Silverstein Properties announced today. Asking rent in the deal was $80 a square foot. Zola will move into the space later this year.
The firm has tripled its headcount over the past few years and raised $140 million in venture capital funding, per the press release. It was valued at $600 million last year, according to Bloomberg, which first reported on the lease. The wedding brand quickly outgrew its original Soho offices and moved to 150 Broadway in the Financial District, where it currently occupies 12,500 square feet.
Zola Founder Shan-Lyn Ma said the firm was “excited to design a beautiful, bright new home, and to join the incredible list of brands partnering with Silverstein Properties.”
Founded in 2013 as a gift registry, Zola expanded in 2017 to offer free tools that allow couples to create guest lists, wedding websites and to-do lists of wedding tasks. It also developed an e-commerce business that sells home goods and tourist “experiences” for honeymoons. The lease allows the startup to build a showroom where couples will be able to shop for gifts and explore wedding planning tools in person. And Zola just got into the brick-and-mortar retail business with a new store at 168 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District, which features a “CBD lounge,” a wedding playlist listening booth and a chapel where couples can create wedding cake toppers with a 3-D printer.
“I’ve often said that the most important decision you can make in your life is to marry the right person,” said Larry Silverstein, the chairman of Silverstein Properties, in prepared remarks. “The right one enables you to do anything you want to do with your life because you do it together. In real estate, the most important decision a company can make is to choose the right location.”
Jeremy Moss and Camille McGratty of Silverstein handled the negotiations for the landlord, along with CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Stephen Siegel, Adam Foster, Steve Eynon, Evan Haskell, David Caperna, Ken Meyerson and Rob Hill. Marcus Rayner and Sam Einhorn of Colliers International represented Zola. CBRE declined to comment on the deal, and a Colliers spokesman didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
“It’s an amazing building and Zola is going to be in great company here with many other public facing companies, including BMI, the New York Academy of Sciences, Fast Company and Inc. magazines,” Moss said in a statement.
