Messaging Platform Sent Takes 4,600 SF in Chelsea

Text messaging platform Sent has signed a lease for 4,609 square feet of office space at 157 West 18th Street.

Neil King, Maxwell Tarter and Kelly Tipton with CBRE represented landlord Caspi Development. Eric Siegel and Chery Anavian at LSL Advisors represented Sent. The lease first appeared on Traded.

The building was recently given a full renovation that included a refreshed exterior, a new lobby and new elevators, in addition to an open-air roof deck. 

A CBRE listing page for the building shows that Caspi has been marketing three full floors — the third, sixth and seventh — each spanning 4,609 square feet. All except the seventh are described as “brand-new prebuilt with 10-foot ceilings,” with patterned hardwood floors and glass-front conference rooms. A Google listing indicates that Sent took the seventh floor, which is the building’s penthouse and features double-height ceilings and a private terrace.

Caspi purchased the building in 2019 for $23.2 million from an undisclosed buyer, according to public records. The company’s page for the building notes that it was built in 1906 as a horse stable, later serving as an electrical supply house.

157 West 18th Street is a midblock building between Seventh Avenue and Avenue of the Americas. Kid Pizza opened in the building’s ground-floor retail space in January. 

The length of the lease and the asking rent were not disclosed. Asking rents for office space in Chelsea for the first quarter of 2025 averaged $67.82 per square foot overall and $91.40 per square foot for Class A space, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield.  

LSL, CBRE and Caspi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com.