Convene Expands Manhattan Footprint

By Keith Loria

530 Fifth Ave.

Convene has signed a 116,000-square-foot lease at 530 Fifth Ave. and officially opened its 20th New York City location at 75 Rockefeller Plaza. The two deals mark Convene’s third and fourth deal with RXR Realty.

“Convene’s traditional product offering, full-service meeting and event space, has been massively successful in the Midtown market, with several locations in high demand in the area near Grand Central in Times Square,” Ryan Simonetti, Convene co-founder & CEO, told Commercial Property Executive. “The Fifth Avenue address, central location, and general proximity to all public transportation was a huge draw for us to open Convene’s first Midtown outpost of our flexible workspace offering at 530 Fifth Ave.”

The deal calls for Convene to occupy four floors of RXR’s 530 Fifth Ave. building, which will represent the company’s largest location to date.

“Commercial real estate is undergoing some exciting and fundamental shifts. Across the real estate industry companies of all sizes, from entrepreneurial organizations to enterprise companies, are looking for more than just office space,” Simonetti said. “Businesses want to attract and retain the best talent, and the workforce is seeking full-service, amenity-rich and flexible workplace solutions.”

A successful model

That’s why Convene’s landlord partnership business model is in demand. Simonetti added that to work with the world’s most respected office owners, such as RXR, both increase the value of traditional office buildings and create inspiring places to meet and work that put human experience above all else.

Convene WorkPlace provides fully-serviced workspaces for entrepreneurial organizations and enterprise teams from 10 to 100 employees.

The new Midtown location will build on Convene’s recent success, providing flexible workspace solutions in Lower Manhattan at Cove Property Group’s 101 Greenwich St., and Brookfield’s One Liberty Plaza, opening later this year.

“It’s a really well-located, Grand Central market, right on Fifth Avenue, boutique office building with a lot of character,” Scott Rechler, RXR Realty’s chairman & CEO, told CPE. “We were able to effectively create almost a building within a building for Convene to curate their experiences and their services within 120,000 square feet in the building.”

Convene at 530 Fifth Ave., will offer its signature full-service meeting and events facilities, available to both building tenants and outside companies.

“Our tenants in the building will have the ability to access their conference facilities, their hospitality facilities and if there is an overflow and need space, they can rent space on a short-term basis from Convene,” Rechler said. “It also brings a lot of energy into the building.”

A strong partnership

According to Simonetti, Convene’s business model relies on mutually beneficial relationships and it wants to help companies such as RXR deliver unparalleled customer experience to all of their tenants. 

“The lease at 530 Fifth Ave., will be our fourth property with RXR, and we are constantly looking at new opportunities throughout their entire portfolio,” he said. “We previously partnered with RXR to open full-service meeting and event space at 32 Old Slip and 237 Park Ave, and recently opened a new meeting facility and membership-only private club at 75 Rockefeller Plaza.”

Convene’s headquarters is in the recently redeveloped 101 Greenwich St., a Class A, LEED Silver-certified office building in downtown Manhattan that was completed in November. The office and meeting services provider occupies 58,000 square feet across three floors. 

Image courtesy of Convene