Thousands Of Common's Co-Living Units To Be Taken Over By New Operator
Co-living and management firm Outpost Club is stepping in to manage some of Common Living's U.S. properties following Common's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Outpost Club took over management for seven Common properties totaling about 350 units in New York City before the bankruptcy was filed. They included The Clark House at 125 W. 138th St. in Harlem; 151 Tompkins, The Knickerbocker House and 340 Clifton in Brooklyn; and 424 W. 47th St. in Hell's Kitchen, Outpost Club founder Sergii Starostin told Bisnow.
Now that the bankruptcy is official, the company plans to convert more in New York, Florida, Texas and New Jersey, it announced in a press release Wednesday.
Some New York management agreements aren't signed yet, but Common and Outpost are in the final phases of negotiations with their receiver, after which the landlords will be able to re-sign with Outpost, Starostin said.
"We are actively having conversations with all of the affected landlords and are working fast to not only provide operational support and profitability to landlords, but to prevent any disruption to current tenants relying on affordable and comfortable coliving spaces," Starostin said in a statement.
Outpost has a history of taking over the management of co-living properties when competitors hit hard times.
Days after Bedly's surprise closure in 2019, Outpost took over a portion of its sublease agreements in Manhattan and New Jersey. It did the same for some U.S. leases when Quarters filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2021 and folded into Habyt, Common's listed parent.
The company also took over a 40-unit property in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, after another co-living operation went bankrupt. With the addition of a few Stoop units in New York and Jersey City, Outpost has managed the transition of about 500 units, it said in the press release.
Founded in 2015, Common was a pioneer of the co-living concept, which includes the purchase or development of apartments and agreeing to manage them with landlords, then leasing individual bedrooms within those units.
Common last year merged with European co-living operator Habyt, which became Common's parent and expanded its brand into Europe and Asia. The deal brought 30,000 units across 40 cities from the new company.
Outpost was founded in 2016 and manages nearly 1M SF across 1,500 units and 40 buildings, according to a press release. The company plans to double its properties under management in the next two years and continue expanding.
Other co-living companies that have folded in the last five years have done so because of rapid expansion and the costs that come with that, Starostin said. He told Bisnow that Outpost's staying power is attributable to an aggressive sales and marketing push, as well as having a firm grip on cost structure.
