NY Office Landlord Gains From Bitcoin Hype
USA – While some traditional office tenants slash their office space footprint, new sectors are emerging to pick up the slack. Bitcoin mining firms are among the new type of lessees renting more commercial property, according to an article published by The Motley Fool on Tuesday evening (15 February, SGT).
For instance, Manhattan’s biggest office landlord SL Green Realty leased out 6,454 sq ft high-quality, fully furnished turn-key-ready space to Cipher Mining, which inked a five-year lease. The office space is located in the recently completed One Vanderbilt project, a 1.7 million sq ft office tower that stands more than 1,400 ft tall and cost over US$3 billion to construct.
Although the lease is small, it helps SL Green fully lease its flagship office building, where 95.2 percent of the commercial space has been taken up. The transaction also shows that an office real estate investment trusts (REITs) can lure new kinds of tenant types to its office buildings.
SL Green is the latest office landlord to gain from the Bitcoin boom. In 2021, leading Bitcoin miner Bit Digital occupied space at WeWork’s 429 Lenox Ave in Miami Beach. It was Bit Digital’s second location in the United States outside its HQ in New York City.
Interestingly, WeWork has been accepting cryptocurrency as payment for rent since April 2021 when crypto exchange Coinbase began paying its membership in crypto. Meanwhile, UK-based digital bank Revolut recently announced that it would pay for its WeWork office space in Dallas with Bitcoin. That office space is its biggest in the country, with over 300 staff. Revolut is also WeWork’’s first enterprise client to start paying in digital currency.
WeWork is among an increasing number of office lessors and coworking space operators that are accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as office rent payment. This enables them to attract more would-be tenants and positions them for future lease expansion opportunities as more of these types of firms thrive.
