Tumblr grows in Midtown South

Continuing the streak of Internet companies taking space in the growing Midtown South neighborhood, the blogging website Tumblr has both renewed and expanded its deal for office space at 35 East 21st Street, the New York Observer reported. The site will now occupy roughly 21,000 square feet inside the 100,000-square-foot building.

Tumblr has steadily grown inside the building since the site was founded in 2007. As The Real Deal previously reported, Tumblr signed a 5,000-square-foot lease for space there in October 2011. The new deal will have Tumblr take about 10,000 square feet of space on the building’s ninth floor, as well as portions of the sixth and 10th floors.

Unnamed sources told the Observer that the company had been searching for spaces as large as 50,000 square feet in the city, particularly in Hudson Square. However, a large-scale expansion got shelved by Tumblr’s financial backers, according to the report.

Matthew Bergey, a leasing executive with CBRE, represented Tumblr. Centaur Properties, the landlord of the building, had representation from Daniel Levine and David Falk at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. [NYO] — Zachary Kussin