Better Mortgage is getting a better lease.
The home-financing startup, also known as Better.com, has signed a lease for 44,000 square feet on the 59th floor of Silverstein Properties’ 3 World Trade Center, Bloomberg reported. The firm has an option to expand on two additional floors as well.
Better.com has been in expansion mode hiring 480 new employees and moving from Soho to 7 World Trade Center in 2018. In January, Better secured $70 million in Series C funding with backers such as Citigroup’s fintech investment arm, American Express Ventures and Goldman Sachs.
“Park Avenue or Hudson Yards are for people who’ve already made it,” Better CEO Vishal Garg told Bloomberg. “Downtown is for people who are making it.”
The company, founded in New York in 2016, aims to streamline the home financing process by getting borrowers pre-approved faster, increasing transparency and lowering costs.
The 80-story, 2.8 million square foot 3 WTC is now 50 percent leased. Other tenants include advertising giant GroupM, “Big Three” consulting firm McKinsey and stock exchange platform IEX.
This January saw another flurry of deals at the tower, with Casper Sleep, Hudson River Trading and Diageo all signing leases within the span of a week. The momentum may encourage Silverstein to move forward with 2 WTC on spec, despite having yet to find an anchor tenant for the final skyscraper at the World Trade Center site. [Bloomberg] — Kevin Sun