Steve Cuozzo was first to report that the video-sharing platform clipping at the heels of Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and Facebook has signed a 10-year-lease for 232,000 s/f at One Five One, Durst’s 48-story tower formerly known as Four Times Square.
The deal gives a major shot in the arm to an office market that has been in the doldrums since the coronavirus shut down the city mid-March and heralds a somewhat brighter future than many have been predicting.
Since Twitter, Google and Facebook all announced long-term work from home (WFH) plans for many of their employees, the sector has been braced for a dramatic drop-off in corporate office leasing as more companies expanded their WFH policies.
Ruth Colp-Haber of Wharton Property Advisors, and a Counselor of Real Estate, called the TikTok news “a rainbow in the midst of a storm.”
The veteran office leasing broker said, “We have all been looking to the major companies that are willing to commit to life after COVID-19. As with the potential Facebook deal, this brings us closer to the return to normal business life. Further, it is an example of the long-term vision needed because there are assuredly better days ahead – the question is when, not if.”
In a report issued earlier this month, experts at Deutsche Bank agreed that a mass migration to remote working is not a sure thing.
