Holy smokes: E-cigarette startup Juul takes space in Soho office building

This smokin’ startup is opening a new office in red-hot Soho.

E-cigarette maker Juul Labs, most recently valued at north of $38 billion, has taken a new office at Stellar Management’s One Soho Square office redevelopment.

The San Francisco-based startup signed a lease for a little more than 54,000 square feet in the building, sources told The Real Deal.

Representatives for Juul and Stellar Management declined to comment.

Asking rent for the space was $125 per square foot, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Juul already has an office in the building just across the street at 155 Sixth Avenue. It wasn’t immediately clear if that office will relocate to One Soho Square or remain in addition to the new space.

Juul’s valuation reportedly jumped to more than $38 billion in May when mutual fund Capital Re bought a batch of secondary shares in the startup. Other investors include Altria (maker of Marlboro cigarettes), which paid $13 billion for a 35 percent stake in December.

Flush with cash, Juul is putting some of its money into real estate. The company just bought a 28-story office tower in downtown San Francisco that’s valued at an estimated $400 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday.

Larry Gluck’s Stellar Management teamed up with Imperium Capital Management on One Soho Square, which is a redevelopment of a pair of office buildings into one nearly 800,000-square-foot complex.

In another recent deal in the building, Stellar signed Flatiron Health to a 120,000 square foot expansion, making the health care technology company the largest tenant on the property, with more than 220,000 square feet.

Flatiron Health in January of last year took a little more than 100,000 square feet in the building, aided in part by up to $6 million in tax credits from the state’s Empire State Development Corporation.

A representative for Flatiron Health was not immediately available for comment.

Other tenants include Aetna, MAC Cosmetics and Warby Parker.

Brokers involved in the deals either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment. Eric Ferriello at Colliers International represented Juul in negotiations with Stellar Management. Savills’ Zev Holzman, Brad Wolk, Herman Dodson and Brian Scharfman negotiated Flatiron Health’s deals. A Newmark Knight Frank team of Brian Waterman, Andrew Peretz, David Malawer and Brent Ozarowski represents Steller at the building.

Stellar and Imperium last month refinanced the building with a five-year, $900 million CMBS loan from Goldman Sachs.