Duolingo Takes Over 86K-SF 4 World Trade Center Offices From Spotify
By Nicholas Rizzi December 22, 2023 12:21 pm
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Some of Spotify (SPOT)’s 4 World Trade Center offices didn’t stay on the sublease market very long.
Language learning app Duolingo signed a sublease with Spotify to take over 85,666 square feet in the Silverstein Properties and Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s 72-story tower, Bisnow first reported.
The deal will start Jan. 1 and last until April 29, 2034, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Duolingo. Duolingo will pay $62 per square foot at the beginning of the lease and up to $67 per square foot by the sixth year, according to the filing.
Duolingo will relocate from a WeWork at 85 Broad Street, the New York Business Journal reported.
In May, Bloomberg reported that Spotify wanted to drop five floors from its footprint inside 4 World Trade Center, including the 85,666 square feet it leased in 2018.
Spotify has been an anchor tenant in the 3 million-square-foot tower since 2017, occupying roughly 564,000 square feet. However, the Stockholm-based music streaming service let its workers work from anywhere starting in 2021 and decided to shrink its office space as a result.
The company has also been trying to cut costs recently and had several rounds of layoffs this year. In January, it cut about 600 employees and then another nearly 200 in June, The New York Times reported.
And earlier this month Spotify announced it would lay off 17 percent of its staff, about 1,500 workers, with more than 750 of them based in New York, Crain’s New York Business reported.
On the other hand, the Pittsburgh-based Duolingo said at the end of 2022 it wasn’t planning to make any staffing cuts in the future.
Spokespeople for Duolingo, Silverstein and Spotify did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It’s unclear who brokered the deal.
Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@commercialobserver.com.
