UPDATED, Sep. 12, 2:55 p.m.: Convene, the startup backed by Brookfield and the Durst Organization, signed a 116,000-square-foot lease at RXR Realty’s 530 Fifth Avenue, where it plans to operate flexible office space for companies with 10 to 100 employees.
The 530 Fifth Avenue location is set to open by mid 2019. According to Bloomberg, Convene’s flexible office offering, dubbed WorkPlace, will occupy 80 percent of its space in the RXR Realty-owned building.
Convene manages common space and amenities in office buildings, but has also branched out into co-working. The company’s first flexible-office location opened at Cove Property Group’s 101 Greenwich Street in February, Bloomberg reported, and the second is set to open at Brookfield Property Partners’ One Liberty Plaza later this year.
Like Knotel, Convene doesn’t do coworking in the strictest sense of leasing desks to freelancers. Instead, it focuses on small and mid-sized companies. WeWork recently launched its own initiative to appeal to more mid-sized tenants.
In July Convene raised $152 million in venture funding, reportedly valuing the company at more than $500 million. RXR was one of the investors. [Bloomberg] — Konrad Putzier
Correction: an earlier version of this post included a wrong name for WorkPlace and falsely claimed it would occupy 80 percent of the building.