Uber Adds Second NYC Headquarters In Midtown
Ride-sharing industry leader Uber is expanding out of Silicon Alley with a second New York headquarters.
The company has signed a lease to take 35K SF at 1400 Broadway, where it expects to house its engineering team, the New York Post reports. The lease is for the entire 12th floor of the building, which sits between 38th and 39th streets in Midtown Manhattan, according to Commercial Observer.
Uber's first office for its employees in the city is a 52K SF space in Chelsea at 636-638 West 28th St., in a 10-year lease it signed in 2014. Uber's primary competitor, the smaller Lyft, also picked Chelsea as the neighborhood for its first headquarters in the city, with an 11K SF lease it signed in September for 245 West 17th St.
Since Google opened its permanent New York headquarters at 111 Eighth Ave. across the street from Chelsea Market in 2005, the Chelsea neighborhood has been the most popular neighborhood for tech tenants in the city, along with its neighbor, the Meatpacking District.
With Google's eye-popping recent purchase of the Chelsea Market building, it seems unlikely for that to change, but with a rising profile comes rising rents, and Chelsea is no longer a bargain-basement neighborhood compared to many Midtown buildings.
The asking rent for Uber's lease at Empire State Realty Trust's 1400 Broadway was for $62/SF, below average for Midtown but a bit higher than the $59/SF paid by immigration law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy for the 108K SF lease it signed in September.
