Lyft Zooming Into Hudson Commons on Far West Side With 100K-SF Lease
By Lauren Elkies Schram February 21, 2019 1:00 pm
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Lyft, the ride-hailing company, has nailed down 100,638 square feet at Hudson Commons at 441 Ninth Avenue, Commercial Observer can first report. It is taking floors two and three in the building when it is complete, according to Kevin Hoo, the managing partner at Cove Property Group.
The asking rent was in the low $90s per square foot, according to CBRE (CBRE)‘s Evan Haskell, who declined to provide the length of the lease. Haskell along with CBRE’s Stephen Siegel, Paul Haskin, James Ackerson and Ben Joseph are the exclusive office leasing agents for the property.
For Lyft, the lease represents “consolidation, relocation and growth,” Haskell said, noting that the company is looking to move in by the end of this year.
With Lyft, the building is now 63 percent pre-leased. Fitness company Peloton signed a 312,000-square-foot lease this past November to relocate its corporate headquarters to the fourth through 10th floors of the property, as well as a 13,000-square-foot basement space, as CO previously reported. The building also has 15,000 square feet of retail space at grade, none of which has yet been snapped up.
Cove Property Group and Baupost Group bought the property for $330 million in 2016 from insurer EmblemHealth, which had occupied the entire building, as CO previously reported. The eight-story, 423,000-square-foot office building between West 34th and West 35th Streets is being repositioned and enlarged to 25 stories and 700,000 square feet. Delivered this summer, the building will tout a design by architect Kohn Pedersen Fox.
Hoo declined to provide the amount of the capital investment, but said the plans include the retention of the existing structure—an industrial building from the 1960s—and the addition of floors with a more efficient construction plate.” The owners are “merging the two together to appeal to as broad an audience as possible,” Hoo said. Fourteen of the 18 floors will have terraces, and the renovation will increase the window space by 80 percent. The building will be WiredScored Platinum-certified and the developers have filed for LEED Platinum certification.
“Cove and Baupost recognized the demand for both upgraded authentic and efficient space by the expanding technology tenant base along with the focus on high-end newly constructed space by the more traditional tenant,” Siegel said in prepared remarks. “Their design and execution of Hudson Commons is an extraordinary accomplishment in that they have created a building that meets both of these demands.”
Steven Rotter and Justin Haber of JLL (JLL) represented Lyft. A spokesman for JLL didn’t immediately provide a comment, nor did anyone from Lyft’s press office.
