Bromley Signs Chime to 84K SF Office Lease in Flatiron

A fintech firm is chiming in with an expansion in Manhattan.

San Francisco-based Chime is leasing 84,000 square feet from the Bromley Companies at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District, the Commercial Observer reported. The asking rent at the building is $96 per square foot, according to the New York Post.

Chime will be relocating its primary Manhattan office space from 101 Greenwich Street. It’s unclear how much space the company occupied at its soon-to-be former location, but the move to 122 Fifth Avenue represents an expansion.

A Cresa team including Jamie Saunders and Janna Luce represented the tenant, while a Newmark team including Eric Cagner and Peter Shimkin represented the landlord.

Over three years ago, Bromley landed a $170 million loan from PCCP to renovate the 10-story building between West 17th and 18th streets. The makeover of the 1900-built, 300,000-square-foot property was designed to attract a next generation of tenants.

That bore fruit when Microsoft signed a long-term lease for 150,000 square feet at the property, which Bromley has owned for almost half a century. Barnes & Noble moved its headquarters there in 1987, where it remained until its hedge fund parent company declined to renew the lease shortly after the 2019 acquisition.

As for Chime — which also has space in Midtown Manhattan — the expansion stands in stark contrast to the company’s recent dealings on the other side of the country. In 2022, it listed two of its six floors at 101 California Street in San Francisco’s Financial District for sublease, approximately 35,500 square feet.

The move came the year after the company signed a 200,000-square-foot lease in the city’s downtown district, the largest office lease in San Francisco that year. But remote work remained present and other macroeconomic trends sparked up, leading Chime to lay off 150 people from its workforce after the downtown lease was inked.

— Holden Walter-Warner