CommonGrounds Workplace Signs 62K Lease at 1700 Market

PHILADELPHIA—CommonGrounds Workplace reports it has signed a long-term lease for 62,461 square feet in the 32-story, 1700 Market building in the heart of Center City here.

The San Diego-based flexible workplace provider is entering the Philadelphia market and will occupy two floors at the recently renovated 850,000-square-foot office building. The new location is expected to open in late January 2020.

Joseph Wolff, Kevin Maloney, George Cauffman and David Mendez with CBRE represented the owner, Shorenstein Co. Jim Suber with Strategic Real Estate Advisory and Michael Gallagher with The Flynn and Company represented CommonGrounds in the negotiations.

This is the sixth CommonGrounds Workplace lease signed in 2019 as part of the company’s $100-million Series A funding expansion program. The company has previously announced long-term leases this year totaling more than 263,000 square feet in Midtown Atlanta, Los Angeles’ financial district, Seattle’s South Lake Union, and at two Washington DC locations in the Downtown and Capitol Riverfront.

Earlier this month, CommonGrounds announced it had signed a 44,183-square-foot lease at 99M, an 11-story, 234,000-square-foot, LEED Gold, Class-A office development in Washington, DC’s Capitol Riverfront.

CommonGrounds will open at the building in late March, 2020, joining the Organization for International Investment (OFII), Pyxera Global, Credit Union National Association, IAM National Pension Fund and The Retail Industry Leaders Association in the new building.

Also, in 2019, CommonGrounds opened new workplaces in Minneapolis, Portland, and Salt Lake City and is opening three additional locations this summer with nine more under construction.

“As a former resident of Philadelphia, it is an honor to announce our new location coming to 1700 Market,” says Jacob Bates, CEO for CommonGrounds Workplace. “The Center City location is fantastic, sitting just a few blocks between City Hall and Rittenhouse Square. Our premium enterprise-grade workplace is a great compliment to the diverse and evolving business community providing a complemental alternative to a modern high-quality corporate headquarters.”

CommonGrounds’ regional headquarters is in Philadelphia. There are currently 15 employees in this location with active hiring underway, the company states. The Philadelphia location will support CommonGrounds headquarters, in San Diego, and its East Coast growth plans and projects currently under construction. In March, CommonGrounds announced a lease in Atlanta’s Midtown that will open in early 2020.

“With our growing regional headquarters and our bullishness on Philly’s vibrant business community, we are very excited to incorporate our HQaaS (Headquarters-as-a-Service) product in this market,” Bates says. “We have found that people and businesses need various typologies of spaces to be productive and reduce friction in their workday. We have designed multiple spaces to accomplish this throughout our new location including video-ready conference rooms, phone booths, think rooms, well-being rooms and additional event and larger gathering areas.”

The renovation of the CommonGrounds space will be overseen by the company’s in-house design division. Sound abating demountable wall systems by Italy-based Tecno and customizable enterprise-grade furniture by San Francisco-based Pair will be utilized in the workplace.