Writers Guild of America East Stays Put at 250 Hudson Street

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The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) will stick to the plotline at 250 Hudson Street, Commercial Observer has learned.

The 70-year-old labor union penciled out a 16-year renewal to keep its 16,749-square-foot headquarters on the seventh floor of the former printing trades building in Hudson Square, its home since 2010, according to landlord Jack Resnick & Sons.

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A spokesperson for Jack Resnick declined to disclose the asking rent, but average asking rent for office space in Hudson Square and West Village was $83.29 per square foot in the first quarter of 2024, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.

WGAE represents about 7,400 television, film and news writers and has recently expanded its ranks in online media as more newsrooms across the country have unionized in recent years. The union gave serious consideration to other office buildings in the neighborhood, and properties in the Financial District and Midtown West, according to C&W’s David Hoffman, who arranged the deal for the union along with Sam Hoffman.

But in the end, “the excellent relationship the Guild enjoys with the Resnicks and compelling renewal terms made staying in place the clear best choice,” Hoffman said.

That’s exactly how Jack Resnick & Sons President Jonathan Resnick hoped things would play out in 2008 when the firm completed a $40 million renovation of 250 Hudson and placed its bets on the neighborhood’s revival as a creative office hub.

“Fifteen years ago, we saw the potential for Hudson Square to become a hub for New York’s most innovative and creative companies,” Resnick said in a statement. “The Writers Guild of America East was among the first of those tenants to sign on at 250 Hudson.”

Adam Rappaport and Brett Greenberg represented the landlord in-house.

A few other tenants also recently decided to stick around at the 394,424-square-foot building about five blocks east of where the Holland Tunnel enters Manhattan. Public relations firm Edelman renewed its 173,618 square feet in 2022, a year after TMRW Life Sciences expanded its office at the property to 38,000 square feet, as CO previously reported. 

Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.