Next for Knotel

The coworking company Knotel once positioned itself as the scrappy alternative to WeWork. It didn’t work. Knotel soon faced bankruptcy and closures, and brokerage services giant Newmark snatched up control during the pandemic. Now, Knotel is back — and returning to a very different climate for coworking in general. Plus, how is multifamily doing in New York City? Very well, thank you.

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— Tom Acitelli, Co-Deputy Editor

Newmark's Knotel Turnaround Could Be Coming at the Best Possible Time

If there’s an effort afoot to rebrand and revive the coworking firm Knotel, it’s been hard to find. Last year, brokerage Newmark acquired the company after its bankruptcy and shook up Knotel’s executive ranks. Months on, some of its coworking competitors have said it appears the company has basically gone dark. But in recent months there have been small signals of a revival, or perhaps a second life, the culmination of the installation of a number of former WeWork execs, including Michael Gross, in top leadership positions last March. There’s been scattered news of property deals since the spring, including a handful in the hot South Florida market, like a warehouse in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood — a 1949 property destined for conversion to boutique offices and being redesigned by famed Miami architecture firm Arquitectonica — and an 18,000-square-foot lease in an upscale new West Palm Beach development. Combined with Newmark’s other flex-work acquisitions, namely the French firm Deskeo and recent deals in Central and Eastern Europe, the firm’s global corporate services division now has true international positioning in the coworking sector.

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Manhattan Multifamily Sales Volume Continues to Increase as Possible Inflation Hedge

Sales of multifamily buildings in New York City might be reaching their vertical limit — if there is one — Commercial Observer has learned. The dollar volume of multifamily transactions was up 37 percent annually in the third quarter, according to investment sales firm Ariel Property Advisors. The average dollar volume was also 71 percent above the five-year quarterly average of $2.085 billion. In the third quarter, Ariel recorded up to $3.57 billion in sales with 89 percent of those transactions both in Manhattan below 96th Street and of market-rate properties, Shimon Shkury, president and founder of Ariel Property Advisors, said.

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