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On the spot: Spotify expands lease to fill-up 4WTC

Associated Press / Mark Lennihan
Four World Trade Center is finally at full occupancy now that Spotify, a music-streaming service, has expanded its lease.

BY JACKSON CHEN

The music-streaming service Spotify is expanding its lease at 4 World Trade Center, bringing the 72-story office building to 100-percent occupancy.

Spotify opted to fill up 4WTC by taking an additional 100,000 square feet of move-in space spread throughout three floors, according to sources. The expanded lease would add more than a quarter of space to the company’s original deal that was signed in February for 378,000 square feet in 11 stories of the office building. The music company is expected to move in sometime next year.

The Spotify deal may bring 4WTC to full occupancy, but its neighboring buildings are still searching for tenants. In January 2016, 21st Century Fox and News Corp backed out of a major deal for more than 1 million square feet of the 110-story 2 World Trade Center. The two media companies pulling out dealt a heavy blow, as it would’ve taken roughly a third of the building’s 2.8 million available square feet, leaving Silverstein Properties still looking for an anchor tenant.

But the recent deal at 4WTC is definitely a hopeful sign, according to Downtown real-estate maven Luis Vazquez, founder of the Fidi Fanpage and a public member of Community Board 1.

“We’re really happy to get them because they’re a young company,” Vazquez said comparing the area’s office demographic. “The old tenants were banks and finance, but the new companies—tech, media, advertising, and publishing — they tend to skew much younger and they have a sex appeal to them that the old industries do not.”

He said the younger crowd would draw more retail and restaurants to the neighborhood. Vazquez added that Silverstein could also claim a major victory with 100-percent occupancy at 4WTC because they were not forced to discount rents to find tenants.

“Now he has to focus on 3 World Trade [Center] and of course, getting an anchor tenant for 2 World Trade [Center],” Vazquez said of Silverstein’s remaining properties. “But having 4 [World Trade Center] filled is a great thing to have in his pocket.”

Representatives for Silverstein Properties declined to comment. Spotify could not be reached for comment.