Twitter Putting Majority of NYC Offices Up for Sublease
By Nicholas Rizzi March 1, 2023 12:20 pm
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Twitter put the vast majority of its New York City offices on the sublease market after it allegedly stopped paying rent as part of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting measures, Bloomberg first reported.
The social media company listed nearly 200,000 square feet of its offices at 245 West 17th Street and 249 West 17th Street for sublease, including the second to 12th floors at 245 West 17th and the fourth to sixth floors of 249 West 17th, according to a source. That’s a massive increase from the single floor Twitter said last year it would try to sublet at 245 West 17th.
It’s unclear how much space that would leave Twitter in New York City and if the social media company plans to keep a physical presence there. A spokesperson for Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its landlord, the Pimco-owned Columbia Property Trust, declined to comment.
Twitter had already joined a growing number of tech companies in pulling back on physical offices to save money, but that shifted into hyperdrive once Musk took over in October. (Those same companies had buoyed the Manhattan office market for much of the pandemic.)
The Tesla owner — who dropped $44 billion to buy Twitter — reduced the company to a “bare-bones operation” to avoid a $3 billion shortfall. The cuts included everything from closing a data center to laying off janitors — and allegedly skipping out on rent to its landlords, The New York Times reported. Musk also began shutting offices around the world and allowing staff in those spots to work remotely full time — softening on the strict return-to-office edict he gave workers when he took over.
While Columbia has remained mum on Twitter’s bills at 245 and 249 West 17th, its other owners haven’t been as kind. Twitter was hit with several lawsuits from its landlords in San Francisco and Britain to get back a combined $7 million in unpaid rent, the Associated Press reported.
Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@commercialobserver.com.
