Duolingo Inc. (NASDAQ: DUOL), the Pittsburgh-based maker of the popular educational learning platform which shares the same name, is set to nearly double its local office footprint with plans to take up to 38,000 square feet of space at the Liberty East development project a few blocks down the street from its headquarters on Penn Avenue.
The company signed a 13-year lease for the still-under-construction office space and retains the option to extend the terms of the lease for two consecutive five-year terms.
In an email statement, a spokesperson for Duolingo said the company plans to use the new space for auxiliary expansion as it "will soon outgrow the available space in (its) current office building," a reference to its headquarters at 5900 Penn Ave.
"Our facilities team considered every possible option for auxiliary space near our headquarters," a Duolingo spokesperson said. "Expanding into Liberty East allows Duolingo to grow in East Liberty and allows our people to convene for lunch and in-person meetings."
Duolingo expects to move into the new space in May 2022 where its base rent price will be fixed at approximately $148,000 per month and will increase by about 2% per year. The landlord will also grant Duolingo an improvement allowance of about $2.3 million "in the aggregate for costs relating to the design, permitting, and construction of improvements" of the new space, a regulatory filing said.
In a prepared statement, Zach Gumberg, a principal of LG Realty Advisors, said of the new office deal with Duolingo, “It’s a great vote of confidence in the future of East Liberty and the region. Duolingo continues investing in our hometown with this significant expansion of their Pittsburgh headquarters. One of the most valuable and exciting EdTech companies in the world was born here, built here and is growing here.”
The new office commitment comes as LG Realty nears the completion of phase one of Liberty East, which Gumberg added is on schedule to be finished next spring.
He added that the company has turned over the retail space to Whole Foods Market, which has begun building out its new store to open in the building’s first floor, enabling a major expansion for the grocery retailer over its established location.
Gumberg declined to comment on whether Duolingo, which has been a fast-growing company before it went public, has any option agreements in place for future expansion at Liberty East. But he did note that Duolingo’s office deal at Liberty East “is pure expansion” for the company, calling it a “premium building in a premium location” as well as one of Pittsburgh’s first post-Covid office developments. CBRE, which is representing the mixed-use complex for lease, declined to comment.
The move by Duolingo demonstrates the growing presence of the newly-listed public company from when it set up its first office in East Liberty about five years ago, which initially took just the top floor of the two-story building on Penn Avenue before later expanding to take nearly the whole building of about 46,000 square feet.
