One Of NYC's First Co-Working Companies Shutting Down
After months of reducing its 300k SF footprint, one floor at a time, one of NYC’s first co-working businesses is giving up its office at 419 Lafayette St and could be shutting down after 15 years.
Cheni Yerushalmi and Joseph Raby’s Sunshine Suites had owned 36k SF at 12 Desbrosses St in Tribeca and 11k SF at the Bronx’s BankNote Building. These locations shuttered in 2013 and 2014, respectively, The Real Deal reports.
Although the company rode high as venture capital poured into local startups after the recession, Sunshine couldn’t compete with WeWork. Sunshine even had several precursors to popular WeWork concepts, such as a Facebook-style social networking site for tenants and an open office plan for growing companies to work side by side.
It was also cheaper than WeWork—with co-working spaces starting at $325/month—but this made the business more volatile.
Neither Cheni nor Joseph confirmed whether the shuttering meant the company was ending its business.
WeWork has similarly struggled in the last few months. The company slashed profit projections by 78% due to delays in opening new locations, high build-out costs and low landlord concessions. [TRD]
