Data analytics and intelligence company Palantir Technologies is embracing life after WeWork (WE) at 620 Avenue of the Americas.
Last month, Palantir struck a deal directly with landlord RXR to update 140,345 square feet in the landmark Chelsea building, according to people familiar with the deal and a Colliers market report.
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A Palantir spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. RXR declined to comment.
The lease term and other deal terms are unknown, but as previously reported by the Commercial Observer, recent transactions for the building had asking rents of more than $100 per square foot.
WeWork set up shop in the seven-story Beaux-Arts building in 2019, leasing 212,387 square feet across the third, sixth and seventh floors. The co-working giant has since signed up the entire property to Palantir and banking app Current in two private office deals that WeWork calls “Enterprise.”
As previously reported by CO, both Current and Palantir are now moving into direct deals to maintain their facilities following WeWork's November bankruptcy.
RXR Chairman and CEO Scott Reckler says it wasn't exactly a curveball when the coworking company filed for bankruptcy last year, so a little foresight helped make it happen. It is said that it was useful.
“We were pretty constructive early on,” Rechler said in an interview after being named to Commercial Observer's 2024 Power 100 list. “The night before they filed for bankruptcy, we entered into a universal agreement with them that allows us to go directly to the tenants who are occupying their space.”
The deal with Palantir took about eight months to close, the people said, but the decision spared at least one of RXR's properties from the impact WeWork's bankruptcy had on the New York office market. That's what it means.
RXR wasn't so lucky at 75 Rockefeller Plaza, where WeWork was seeking permission to deny the lease, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court records.
Newmark (NMRK)'s Michael Morris and Ray's Commercial Real Estate's Sebastian Infante co-brokered the Palantir deal, the people said on condition of anonymity. It is unclear who was in charge of it at RXR. Morris did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Infante also declined to comment.
With additional reporting by Nicholas Rizzi
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
