Inside Convene’s New Manhattan HQ

By Sanyu Kyeyune

Bentall Kennedy and Cove Property Group unveiled the redevelopment of 101 Greenwich Street—a Class A, LEED Silver-certified office building in downtown Manhattan—and gave Commercial Property Executive an insider’s look.

Completed in November 2017, 101 Greenwich will be the new headquarters and flagship location of Convene, an office and meeting services provider that will also design and manage the building’s amenities and hospitality features. The company plans to occupy 58,000 square feet across three floors. 

The repositioning of the 26-story, 480,000-square-foot office building, which was first erected in 1907 as United States Express Co.’s headquarters, not only impacted its design but also its infrastructure. For example, the strategic choice to move core utilities from the basement to the third floor serves to better protect the building in case of a severe weather event. Drawing on Lower Manhattan’s renewed vibrancy, 101 Greenwich benefits from several nearby transit options, cultural attractions, retail and dining. 

Plug-and-play workspace

101 Greenwich also boasts a range of innovative features, such as mobile app-enabled building access, as well as climate and lighting control—all aimed at providing end users with a next-generation workplace enabled by state-of-the-art technologies. Tenants can select prebuilt offices between 3,100 and 6,600 square feet, or customize spaces as large as 19,000 square feet for a full floor. Convene will also offer some flexible-term leasing options to prospective tenants.

A few months later in May 2018, Convene followed up 101 Greenwich’s ribbon-cutting mere blocks away, with its largest-ever lease signing at One Liberty Plaza, Brookfield Properties’ 2.3 million-square-foot Lower Manhattan skyscraper.