Move Over, JPMorgan—WeWork Says It’s Now Bigger In Manhattan

(Bloomberg) -- Office-sharing powerhouse WeWork Cos. is now Manhattan’s biggest private occupier of offices, the company said in a blog post. That’s despite the failure of talks to lease about 200,000 square feet (18,600 square meters) at 1 World Trade Center.

Data from brokerage Cushman & Wakefield last month put WeWork at No. 2, with 5.14 million square feet of offices, surpassed only by JPMorgan Chase & Co., with 5.2 million square feet. According to the blog post, written by WeWork Chief Development Officer Granit Gjonbalaj, it was a deal for 258,344 square feet at 21 Penn Plaza that pushed the firm to the top of the list. That lease was signed in August, The Real Deal reported.

After starting eight years ago, with just a single floor in a building in Soho, “we have gone on to occupy over 5.3 million square feet of space in Manhattan, placing us ahead of the four banking giants that have dominated the commercial real estate market for years,” Gjonbalaj wrote.

Early this year, WeWork had already become the biggest private office tenant in London, according to the blog post.

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.