Case Study Joe's Coffee Company

Meet Joe Coffee

Challenge Looking for lots of space and a little privacy

Joe's Coffee Company's Ideal Space

Space for ~12 people
1-2 private offices
Plenty of natural light
Midtown South
Open plan concept
Short-term lease
Conference room

With its headquarters stuck behind a retail storefront, the rapidly-growing Joe Coffee Company needed to break out into a brand-new office. SquareFoot helped them find a light-filled space with a fabulous city view.

Joe Coffee Company was founded by Jonathan Rubenstein in 2003 as a specialty coffee house in Manhattan’s West Village and has since expanded to 21 locations in NYC, as well as two cafes in Philadelphia. All of their coffees are roasted right in Long Island City.

Impressed with Joe Coffee’s quality and commitment to sustainable sourcing, restaurateur Danny Meyer’s famed Union Square Hospitality Group started investing in the small-but-mighty chain in 2017, signaling greater success to come.

Coffee filter with Joe Coffee beans and grounds

In Need of a New HQ

With a mission to serve excellent coffee with warm hospitality, Joe Coffee provides baristas with industry-leading professional training at its Flatiron location. However, for some time this spot was also the company’s headquarters. This meant that one single location was serving customers, training employees, and acting as a makeshift office.

“With a number of new locations opening up, it was going to increase the headcount for their training, so their training space needed to be even larger than ever before,” says SquareFoot broker Stephen Barry. “All of their operations were growing, so they were bursting at the seams in that space.”

Given Joe Coffee Company’s continued growth in cafes and personnel, it was clearly time to find a proper office for their headquarters.

A Hassle-Free Search

Though Joe Coffee was working with various firms to find its perfect space, SquareFoot set itself apart by making the process very transparent, setting expectations, and adhering to the company’s requirements. Stephen began with a wide-ranging tour that gave their team an opportunity to get a good sense of the market. “Once we had seen a lot of different spaces in different sizes, locations, and layouts, we were able to identify truly what they were looking for,” explains Stephen.

SquareFoot was also able to make the search a bit easier with online listings. “They were very busy,” says Stephen. “Our platform allowed them to share photos and information with their colleagues, and get a pretty good assessment of whether or not a particular space would be a waste of time to see. Sometimes they would say, ‘I just saw this listing on your site, let’s take a peek at this.’ Then I could gather some more precise information, and coordinate access for the team to tour it.”

Looking for Lots of Space and a Little Privacy

Having been confined to the dark space at the back of a bustling café, the Joe Coffee team was eager to find an office with lots of natural light. Ideally, they wanted an open plan concept with some breakout spaces for privacy when needed. Like many younger businesses that are growing fast, they were also budget-conscious and hoping for a shorter-term lease.

Although the company’s team was open about considering real estate all around Manhattan, their strong preference was for an office fairly close to their previous headquarters, since that location also hosted their employee training program.

Seeing the Light

Stephen was ultimately able to find Joe Coffee Company a great space in the booming Hudson Yards neighborhood that checked all the right boxes. The 1,650-square foot office has a couple of private offices and a glass-fronted conference room with beautiful views of the city from the 20th floor of the building. “It also has amazing natural light on three sides, which is unique for a space of that size,” notes Stephen.

“We love the space,” says Jonathan Rubenstein, Founder & CEO of Joe Coffee Company. “Stephen and SquareFoot were with us through every step of the process, helping us to find a fantastic office space that suits our needs at this pivotal time in our company’s growth.”

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Graphic of girl sitting at computer with cup of coffee

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