AI Firm Forus Inks 25K-SF Lease at Zar Property’s 109 Wooster Street in SoHo

Forus, an artificial intelligence company formerly known as Tandem, has inked a 25,200-square-foot lease at Zar Property NY’s 109 Wooster Street in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, Commercial Observer has learned. 

The company, which focuses on modernizing medication access and health care operations, will occupy the entire second and third floors of the six-story building between Spring and Prince streets — 12,600 square feet on each floor — for five and a half years. The asking rent was $118 per square foot, according to a source close to the deal. 

Zar Property NY, a family-run firm that owns, manages and leases the property, was represented in-house by brothers David and Jonathan Zar and their cousin Julian Zar. Newmark’s Adam Spector and Steven Rotter represented the tenant. The brokers on both sides of the deal declined to comment. 

Forus’ website lists its current New York City office address at 73 Spring Street, a quick six-minute walk to its new location. It is unclear when the company will relocate. Forus will replace previous tenant Xfinity Creative, which recently made the move to 75 Rockefeller Plaza.

Earlier this month, Forus announced that it raised over $160 million to help advance its mission: using an AI-powered network to connect doctors, pharmacies, payers and biopharma companies with new science and medications to automate the process between diagnosis and treatment. 

“Drug discovery is moving faster, but the system that turns it into real-world treatment isn’t,”  Forus CEO Sahir Jaggi told CO. “We are creating that missing layer. We’re grateful to the clinicians across the country who already trust Forus to get their patients on treatment. There’s an opportunity to unlock an order of magnitude more treatment options for doctors and patients, and we are building a team whose ambition matches that goal.”

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