With a rapidly growing staff, New York real estate listings aggregator StreetEasy is moving this month to a bigger office.
StreetEasy hired Christoff:Finio Architecture to design the new 7,500-square-foot space, which is located at 13 Crosby Street. The company is in the process of relocating there from its current 2,000-square-foot office at 895 Broadway, where it’s been since its founding in 2006.
The bigger space was much-needed, according to StreetEasy CEO Michael Smith, who said the site has seen year-over-year traffic growth of more than 40 percent, and now gets 20 to 25 million page views per month. Some 10,000 real estate agents now use StreetEasy on a regular basis, he said. As a result, StreetEasy has nearly doubled its staff over the last few months, growing from 13 to 23 employees. And Smith said he plans to hire at least a dozen more by the end of the year.
With help from broker Janet Liff of J. Liff & Co., StreetEasy negotiated the lease almost a year ago, then waited for an existing tenant to vacate the space. Smith said the company is paying a rent “in the mid-40s.”
Christoff:Finio then tailored the new space to the company’s needs. One particularly notable feature is a custom-made bike rack to accommodate the 14 StreetEasy employees who bike to work each day.
There is also a much bigger kitchen, which will allow the entire staff to eat lunch together — something that StreetEasy employees try to do at least a couple of days per week.
“We always prefer a meal to a meeting,” Smith said.