Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which also uses the moniker a16z, will open an office at 200 Lafayette Street in SoHo, more than quadrupling its New York City footprint.
The Menlo Park, California–based investment group led by Marc Andressesen and Ben Horowitz has leased 33,560 square feet across the entire third and fourth floors, which had an asking rent of $95 per foot.
Adam Henick and Brandon Charnas of Current Real Estate Advisors represented the firm in the 10-year deal while Barbara Winter and Carlee Palmer of JLL represented the owners of the office condominium portion of the building. Neither brokerage responded to requests for comment.
LaSalle Investment Management purchased the office condo from Brookfield in 2015 for $124.5 million on behalf of Swiss Re. AEW now manages the property.
Its new tenant goes by “a16z” because there are 16 letters between the “a” in Andreessen and the “z” in Horowitz. It will move from a 7,147-square-foot New York City office at 11 Madison Avenue, where it is paying $68 per square foot. That lease expires in 2022.
Sources said the space on Lafayette Street will house the investment firm’s crypto fund, among other divisions. The firm, founded in 2009, has $19.2 billion in assets under management, according to its website.
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The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Andreesen Horowitz wants to accumulate a $6.5 billion war chest for investments this year after already raising $2.2 billion for a cryptocurrency fund and another $400 million seed fund. Last month it led a $50 million funding round for crypto startup Matter.
The company’s new digs at 200 Lafayette Street are on the northwest corner of Broome Street in a hot Soho corridor. The seven-story building was leased by J.C. Penney in 2012 from Jared Kushner and CIM Group as the retailer’s former CEO Ron Johnson went on a spending spree before the company tanked. JC Penney later started giving up.
The approximately 30,000 square-foot retail space on the ground and second floors, still owned by Brookfield, is vacant and is being shown to retailers. Brookfield came into the property when it absorbed General Growth Properties in a $9 billion deal. General Growth had bought the building from Kushner and CIM Group in 2013 for $150 million, then put the office portion on the market.