WeWork has shown interest in taking over Town Residential’s Union Square office as the brokerage sheds locations that housed its shuttered sales and leasing operations.
The co-working company already occupies eight floors above Town’s 8,250-square-foot ground-floor retail office at 33 Irving Place. And as Town looks to unload its excess real estate, WeWork has been looking at moving in, sources told The Real Deal.
It wasn’t immediately clear if WeWork would look to strike a deal to sublease the office from Town, or do a direct deal with its landlord at the building, the Virginia-based Belvedere Management.
Andrew Heiberger’s brokerage has significant term left on its lease, having inked a 20-year deal to occupy the space in 2013. But the lease comes with a “good guy guarantee” that allows the tenant to walk away from the office free-and-clear of any additional rent owed it if it hands the keys back to the landlord.
And WeWork may have further incentive to strike a direct deal with Belvedere. Retail space in the base of the building adjacent to Town’s office at the corner of Irving Place and East 16th Street set to become available soon. If WeWork took the space – currently occupied by a restaurant – it would have frontage across nearly half the block.
Representatives for WeWork and Town were not immediately available for comment.
The Union Square location is one of at least three offices that Town could look to unload after it closed its resale and leasing arms last month, as TRD originally reported.
As of last week, rival brokerage Compass had been in late-stage talks to lease Town’s 16,600-square-foot flagship office in the Flatiron District.