Refinery29 subleasing at 225 Broadway for move in with Vice

Tomorrow Health taking 15k sf from women’s lifestyle website

Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc and 225 Broadway (Getty Images, Google Maps, iStock)
Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc and 225 Broadway (Getty Images, Google Maps, iStock/Photo Illustration by Steven Dilakian for The Real Deal)

Figuring out office space is becoming a vice for a major media company.

Refinery29 is subleasing 15,000 square feet at Braun Management’s 225 Broadway to healthcare technology company Tomorrow Health, the Commercial Observer reported.

Employees of the women’s lifestyle media brand have already moved to owner Vice Media’s offices at 289 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. Vice, which acquired Refinery29 in 2019, recently scrapped plans to move to Rudin Management’s Dock 72 and renewed its lease at the space for four years.

A spokesperson for Vice told the Observer that it was always the plan to integrate Refinery29 at Vice’s Williamsburg office.

The website has operated out of 225 Broadway since 2012, when it signed a 10-year lease for more than 30,000 square feet across two floors, one of which remains available to rent.

Tomorrow Health, meanwhile, will be relocating from 1123 Broadway. The sublease is a big expansion for the company, which occupies only 2,000 square feet at its current office.

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The asking rent for the sublease was in the low $50s per square foot, an increase from the $38 per square foot when Refinery29 moved in. Avison Young’s Peter Johnson represented Tomorrow Health, while a Savills team including Erik Schmall and Allyson Bowen represented Vice.

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Johnson said in a statement that Tomorrow Health’s move would enable the company to accommodate an increase in headcount and “encourage collaboration.”

Vice turned against expecations when it decided to remain at its 77,000-square-foot office in Williamsburg. The company renewed its lease with WEB Holdings LLC, maintaining the headquarters it has had since 2014.

The four-year renewal gives Vice an opportunity to soon reevaluate its need for space.

The Kent Avenue renewal serves as a blow to Dock 72, which recently landed cooking and home brand Food52 as its second tenant. WeWork is the building’s anchor tenant, set to provide programming and amenities for the other tenants.

[CO] — Holden Walter-Warner