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By: Serach Nissim
Yogurt giant Chobani has plans for a trendy new corporate headquarters north of Houston Street in NoHo.
As reported by Crain’s NY, Chobani announced two weeks ago that it would take on all 120,000 square feet of the recently completed boutique office tower at 360 Bowery. The company plans to rebrand the tower as a new kind of HQ, which will benefit the entire neighborhood. The Greek Yogurt brand currently has its New York headquarters in 200 Lafayette St in SoHo, the seven-story, 29,000 square foot building owned and renovated by Brookfield Properties. Once the interior renovations are completed at 360 Bowery, Chobani will move into the new headquarters, which has been named the Chobani House. The renovations are slated to be completed within the year. It’s hard to imagine what the company will do with the entire 22-story office tower, but it plans to utilize all the floors and it will have what the company is calling “experiential retail space” as well as a kitchen that prepares meals for those in the community.
“Like all things Chobani … it imagines a different world — especially in a post-pandemic office environment. Why not take that real estate and make it work harder in support of the community where you are?” Ben Boyd, Chobani’s chief communications officer, told Crain’s. Boyd declined to divulge any details about who will occupy the space or what the kitchen will look like. It is unknown if any part of the Chobani House will be open for the public.
The office tower, developed in partnership by Morris Adjmi and CBSK Ironstate, sits at the corner of East Fourth Street. The building, designed by Morris Adjmi Architects and AECOM-Canyon Partners, boasts full-floor office suites and oversized windows with added amenities including a chic lobby, a 360 Club amenity floor with a state-of-the-art fitness room, 2,900 square feet of communal outdoor terrace space overlooking lower Manhattan, advanced HVAC system including AtmosAir filtration; and bike storage space with chargers for electric scooters, per the tower’s website.
Per Crain’s, David Kleiner, Vice Chairman at JLL, the brokerage which represented the building owner in the lease deal, declined to reveal how much Chobani will paying for its lease or how long the term has been set for. Previously, the landlord had been asking between $130 and $200 per square foot for the office space, as per CoStar.
Chobani, founded by Turkish businessman Hamdi Ulukaya in 2005, currently operates the largest yogurt facility in the world. The yogurt’s market share in the U.S. jumped from less than 1 percent in 2007 to over 20 percent in 2021, per Wikipedia. Notably, in 2016 Chobani announced it was giving 10 percent of its ownership stake to its employees. Chobani boasted over 2000 employees as of 2018. The company made the news last year for purchasing the Philadelphia-based coffee roaster chain LA Colombe for $900 million.
Many are excited to see the new spin Chobani will take on the headquarters and speculate that it may create a new trend for other businesses to follow. “Throughout the city, in the post-pandemic era, there’s been a need to reinforce all of our neighborhoods and the community environment, so I think this could be a model for other companies,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City.
