Agoda, a travel service aggregator website and a member of The Priceline Group has officially announced they will be relocating within the Empire State Building from 7,683 SF on the 47th floor to the entire 66th Floor spanning 27,377 SF.  Agoda, headquarter in Hong Kong has focused much of their business in Southeast Asia but now decided to emphasize their North American operations with a keen focus on expanding their workforce in Manhattan.  Represented by Strategic Occupancy Solutions (SOS)/JLL’s own Deb van der Heyden, Paul Ferraro and Matt Livingston Agoda will be moving into their new digs as soon as construction is completed.

“Agoda’s decision to expand/relocate within 350 Fifth Avenue was due to a numbers of factors which included employee retention and attraction, as well as the advantage of having an instantly internationally recognizable address,” said SOS’s Paul Ferraro.

 

 

Competing for the same talent that Facebook and Google values Agoda saw an opportunity to use their new office as a compelling draw to prospective employees, with sweeping panoramic views of Manhattan as well access to The Empire State Building’s “Urban Campus”.   The “Urban Campus” includes the largest Tenant Only Gym in Manhattan spanning 15,000 SF as well as a Tenant only conferencing center, event space, private dining as well as a number of in house food options ranging from Starbucks to the STATE Grille and Bar.

The 66th floor was never on the market, but by leveraging SOS’s experience representing more than 400,000 SF worth of Tenants in the building the team was not only able to work closely with the Landlord to shake the floor loose, but also successful in negotiating a generous concession package and even some extra perks including a VIP pass to the Observatory.

In the negotiation process the Landlord attempted to pass along many of the provisions in Agoda’s 7,683 SF lease that was negotiated by Agoda’s previous real estate service provider.  After careful examination of the provisions, comparing them to previously negotiated leases in the building the SOS Team spotted and corrected a number expensive red flags that will save Agoda millions of dollars over the course of their long term lease.  While these provisions created unnecessary costs in Agoda’s 7,683 SF short term lease, because of the size and length of their lease Agoda was able to compensate through strong sales.  However in a 27,377 SF lease these same provisions would have the ability to cripple Agoda’s operations, but instead of an obstacle Agoda’s new space now acts as a catalyst now only operationally but economically as well!