Yelp wants to sublease nearly half its space at Vornado’s theMart

Add Yelp to the mountain of companies now trying to sublease office space in Chicago.

The firm that crowdsources business reviews has hired Cushman & Wakefield to market nearly half its space at the Merchandise Mart, according to Crain’s. The move is another blow to the beleaguered city office market and follows a similar decision by Yelp to exit space in New York City.

The firm will look to trim 60,000 square feet at Vornado Realty Trust’s 4 million-square-foot theMart. San Francisco-based Yelp had 132,044 square feet at theMart’s fourth and fifth floors, on a lease that expires in 2023. The firm was paying nearly $37 per square foot in base rent and was the fourth largest tenant in the building, according to a 2016 rent roll.

The Chicago office market has been slammed by the pandemic, with the fourth quarter vacancy rate over 14 percent and sublease availability at a 12-year high.

Yelp said “with more employees working remotely we’re reducing some of our footprint in Chicago, but will still maintain our office there,” according to the report.

Last week, the company let brokers know that two of its Manhattan offices were available for sublease. It said the firm would likely to see which of those spaces draws the most interest from the market, and then consolidate its employees into the other, sources familiar with the company’s plans told The Real Deal. [Crain’s] — Alexi Friedman