Coworking Company The Malin to Open 20K-SF Chelsea Outpost

Coworking company The Malin will open a new location this fall at 270 Seventh Avenue in Chelsea. 

The Malin Chelsea will feature a split design and occupy 19,833 square feet in the building at the corner of West 26th Street, to be used for both coworking and special events, the company announced. This will be Malin’s 11th location in the United States and sixth in New York City. 

Malin will open through a management agreement with landlord TF Cornerstone, in which the landlord  will not charge Malin rent and instead receive some of  the profits from the coworking space. 

“In coworking now there’s a trend toward management agreements,” Luke Meyers, special counsel of real estate transactions and director of commercial asset management for TF Cornerstone, told Commercial Observer. “One of the reasons people think WeWork got into trouble is because they signed long-term leases and had hefty rents to pay no matter what their business was doing.”

As being on the hook for pricey, long-term office leases weighed down coworking companies’ balance sheets, many operators pivoted to management agreements, especially following the failure of WeWork’s initial public offering. (WeWork itself made an unsuccessful push into partnership agreements in 2019 before its IPO flamed out.)

Malin and TF Cornerstone agreed to a 10-year management deal. However, if the business is not as profitable as the landlord hoped, TF Cornerstone can terminate the deal before the term is up.

“The profit from the coworking business is split between the operator and the landlord,” Meyers said. “So after the operator pays the business costs each month, you look at what’s left to distribute, and ideally that’s a positive number, and you split it in some manner between the landlord and the operator.”

Malin and TF Cornerstone entered into their operating agreement at the end of April, a source close to the deal told Commercial Observer. 

Malin members coming into the Chelsea location from Seventh Avenue will have access to open seating, eight private offices, 16 dedicated desks, one large boardroom and three smaller meeting rooms, as well as a shared kitchen and 16 private phone booths. 

A separate entrance on West 26th Street will open into Malin’s first dedicated event space in Manhattan, which can accommodate gatherings ranging from small workshops to large-scale panels and social events. 

“At The Malin, we believe that spaces for everyday work and milestone moments deserve the same level of attention and care,” Ciarán McGuigan, CEO and founder of The Malin, said in a statement. “The Malin Chelsea reflects our commitment to providing environments where creativity, connection and ambition thrive under one roof.”

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.