StubHub expands footprint at World Trade Center, taking over Spotify’s shrinking space

Spotify needs less space in the World Trade Center, but StubHub needs more. In a deal that should please everyone — including landlord Larry Silverstein — the online live events marketplace is subleasing a whopping 103,000 square feet from the music streaming company.

Savills represented StubHub, which will relocate from 44,000 square feet at 3 World Trade Center to more than twice the size at 4 World Trade Center next door. The deal also allows StubHub to take up more Spotify space at 4 World Trade Center later, Savills said.

Separately, sources said another unnamed tenant at 3 World Trade Center may choose to expand into StubHub’s old space.

“This significant expansion at 4 World Trade Center will support StubHub’s growth within its global headquarters in one of Manhattan’s premier buildings, not just downtown,” said Scott Bogetti, Managing Director at Savills. “Structuring a transaction that meets StubHub’s needs is a testament to the collaborative effort among all parties involved in this transaction.”

The move also highlights the strength of Silverstein’s holdings in the World Trade Center buildings – Buildings 3, 4 and 7 comprise about 10 million square feet and are nearly full.

Jeremy Moss, director of rentals at Silverstein, said of the Spotify-StubHub situation:

“One of the attractions of a campus environment with multiple buildings is the opportunity it provides for growth, even for larger tenants.

“When sublease space became available in the World Trade Center, it filled up very quickly,” Moss said.

The terms of the sublease are unclear. Moss said direct rents for the small amount of available space remaining at 4 World Trade Center are $90 a square foot, and direct rents at 3 World Trade Center have also gone from $90 “to several hundred dollars.”

Spotify is reducing its office space as a result of layoffs, cost-cutting and a relaxed work-from-home policy, after previously subleasing 69,000 square feet to payroll management company Rippling and 85,000 square feet to language-learning platform Duolingo.

After subleasing the space to StubHub, Spotify’s space at 4 World Trade Center is just over half of its original 564,000 square feet.

Other large tenants at 3 World Trade Center include WPP, law firm Freshfields, McKinsey and Uber. In addition to Spotify, 4 World Trade Center is home to insurer Zurich, a unit of KKR and online finance platform Clear Street, which took over floors previously leased to Media Math.