Roku may be tanking these days on Wall Street, but the company remains a big deal on Madison Avenue ... and now, the world-famous junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street.
According to the New York Post, Roku has agreed to pay RXR realty $90 square foot to take over 240,000 square feet of prime top-four-floor office space at 5 Times Square, located at what is called "The Crossroads of the World" in New York City.
Notably, the deal includes the vertical "blade" signage that up until recently touted one of the building's previous anchor tenant, global accounting giant Ernst & Young.
“It was long thought of as the EY building, and now, Roku sets a new tech tone,” said RXR chief executive Scott Rechler to the Post.
Roku hasn't publicly commented on the deal, which was reportedly signed last week.
Roku remains headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices down south in Santa Monica. Notably, Roku -- which doubled its Los Angeles-area staff to nearly 200 in 2021 as it gets more involved in the media-entertainment area -- is about to expand its Santa Monica presence, as well. Roku, which previously had an office at the Water Garden in Santa Monica, has leased 72,019 square feet at the Colorado Center.
“We actually outgrew the office that we left before the pandemic and have to open a new office,” Rob Holmes, Roku’s VP of programming, told the Los Angeles Times. “It just reflects the size of Roku’s resources and the kind of investment in the L.A. area.”
The NYC move, of course, signals an expansion of Roku's advanced advertising ambitions, with the company moving out of only 70,000 square feet of space at 414 W. 41st St.
Roku is on pace to easily surpass $2 billion in advertising revenue in 2021, after generating $1.8 billion in "platform" sales in 2020.
The 34-story 5 Times Square building, opened in 2003, contains about 1.1 million square feet of office space and is owned by RXR and investor David Werner, who recently committed to $50 million in capital improvements.
