Convene Taking 93K SF At Brookfield's One Liberty Plaza

Convene is opening its largest location yet in Manhattan's Financial District.

The flexible workspace provider has signed a 93K SF lease for One Liberty Plaza, the skyscraper co-owned by Brookfield and Blackstone.

The location's ground floor, which spans 4,798 SF, will feature a public cafe and coffee shop, Convene announced Monday. The mezzanine and second floors, which span a collective 41K SF, will have meeting and events space. The 44,751 SF third floor will be for flexible office space. Convene will also host an “on-site hospitality and culinary program” with locally sourced food.

Convene is planning to rapidly expand in the wake of this significant lease.

“Within the next 24 months, we really want to position ourselves as the No. 2 brand,” Ryan Simonetti, Convene’s co-founder and CEO, told the Wall Street Journal, referencing top dog WeWork.

The lease at One Liberty Plaza is part of the company’s plans to open new locations across 150K SF in Manhattan in the next year, according to the Journal. That expansion will increase Convene’s presence in the borough by nearly 46%.

Simonetti said in the company release that the firm is “thrilled to expand our partnership with Brookfield Properties." In 2017, Convene raised $68M in Series C funding led by Brookfield. The Canadian equity giant owns 20% of the firm and is now the company’s biggest shareholder.

“Tenants want more flexibility, and they're also striving to make the most efficient use of their accommodations that they can,” Brookfield Chairman Ric Clark told Bisnow in an interview earlier this year. “We can just do business with people like [Convene] and rent them space. But we may as well throw our full weight behind them and invest money … it's a business that has tremendous room to grow.”