Roughly one year after the Wing — a buzzy and Instagrammable women-only coworking and social space — was shut down by its parent company IWG, the Manhattan building that housed its headquarters has traded hands for $18.95 million, The Post has learned.
Located at 137 Second Ave. in the East Village, a property that the Wing had fully leased in 2019 in the high $60s per foot, Cofinance sold the three-story structure to a mystery buyer listed as 137 Second Avenue Holdings, LLC.
The roughly 15,000-square-foot offering hit the market in March for $22.5 million. The newly minted seller, according to city finance records, purchased the building for $18 million in 2019. The Wing inked its lease before that deal.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Hunter Moss, Michael DeCheser and Bryan Hurley represented Cofinance in the transaction. Paul Wolf, Christopher Turner and Kate Hrobsky of Denham Wolf, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, repped the confidential buyer.
It isn’t clear what use this property will ultimately see.
Apart from the Wing’s history there, which launched to fanfare in Manhattan in 2016 — with its co-founders Audrey Gelman (a childhood friend of Lena Dunham) and Lauren Kassan rising to prominence — the building itself is a stunning get.
“Cushman & Wakefield was able to identify multiple users for this asset, which yielded an exceptional sale price,” said Moss in a statement. “This property has a rich history and we trust the legacy of this special building will continue to flourish under new ownership. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to handle the sale of a unique and beautiful piece of New York City’s history.”
Built in 1884, and in previous lives serving as the Stuyvesant Polyclinic and the Cabrini Medical Center, it was designed in a modified neo-Italian Renaissance style by the German-born architect William Schickel, according to marketing materials. The property was designated a city landmark in 1976, and also has a facade of Philadelphia pressed brick ornamented in terra cotta, the marketing materials tout.
Four original busts dress the facade, including one of the Greek physician Hippocrates. Beneath the cornice of the building are five additional busts showing figures from the 17th through the 19th centuries, such as Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus.
The Wing, however, was for women only. There was a lengthy waitlist for members to access the highly designed spaces accented with stylish millennial pink furnishings and books arranged on shelves by color. The Wing additionally raised more than $100 million from investors, including Airbnb and WeWork, and had 11 locations under its belt at its peak. At that time, all while the company boasted a message of diversity, there were 12,000 members and 9,000 eager entrants on its waitlist.
However, the successes didn’t last. In 2020, the Wing nearly went bankrupt. The coronavirus pandemic took its toll, but so did allegations that — despite a promotion of social consciousness — the company had mistreated staffers of color.
For instance, following the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Wing pledged to donate $200,000 to causes linked to Black Lives Matter, the New York Times reported. Around that same time, the Wing had laid off more than 300 employees, offering them a one-time stipend of $500 for which they needed to apply.
“How do you have 200k for orgs when you still haven’t paid numerous employees that applied for the employee relief fund?” one commenter said on Instagram regarding that donation announcement, according to the Times. “Particularly Black & brown space staff who were making $16.50.”
In June 2020, amid the bitter internal criticism, Gelman resigned while maintaining a 10% stake. Kassan remained and even served as the company’s CEO.
