Gawker Media is expanding out of its Nolita roots to the tech-centric Flatiron District.
The ink is barely dry on a deal for the gossip-driven digital media company to move to 58,900 square feet on three full floors of 114 Fifth Ave.
“114 Fifth Avenue has ceiling height and space that will accommodate even our outsized egos,” Nick Denton, founder and president of Gawker Media, quipped in a statement.
“And we’re pleased to be in the same building as The Intercept and Mashable. The potential for media-on-media gossip is rich.”
Denton, who founded Gawker in a small office at 210 Elizabeth St., has since gobbled up all 18,000 square feet of the property’s office space.
The company behind Valleywag, Defamer and Morning After will move next spring to the 2nd through 4th floors of 19,326 square feet each at the lower Fifth Avenue building.
Gawker will have a private entrance on W. 17th Street and the use of the building’s landscaped roof deck, where it can get gossip from other tenants that include MasterCard, ad agency AKQA and news website First Look Media.
Jonathan Tootell, Jared Horowitz, Evan Foley and Justin Pollner of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Gawker Media in the transaction and will now offer its current offices out for sublease.
David Berkey and Andrew Wiener of L&L Holding Company represented the building ownership in-house that includes private-equity firm Lubert-Adler.
The building has been entirely renovated with a new lobby, mechanicals, elevators and green features. The asking rent was $78 a foot and four floors remain available.
