WeWork Sues The Lucky Group for Half a Million Dollars

Bad news continues for the magazine formerly known as Lucky, now known as The Lucky Group, a website where you can buy things and also read about fashion a bit: they’re being sued for not paying for renovations on their office in the New York neighborhood of Chelsea.

The current status of The Lucky Group remains murkier than ever with this news. WeWork, according to real estate blog The Real Deal, is suing The Lucky Group because they claim Lucky has not paid them for the office space that WeWork outfitted to Lucky’s specifications. (Though many think of WeWork as a company that provides spaces where freelancers can gather, it’s also got locations that larger companies can rent temporarily when they’re in transition—spaces that can be designed to fit said company’s needs.) The lease was apparently signed last December, months after Condé Nast and Lucky magazine split, but when Lucky officially fell apart this June, things changed:

“Because the subject office space was custom constructed and configured to conform to Lucky’s unique requirements, WeWork was unable to rent the space to another WeWork member and was required to renovate it,” the complaint reads.

The shared-office provider wants at least $470,000 in damages.

Update: a copy of the suit was provided to Jezebel; while the Real Deal post indicated that Lucky was being sued for not paying rent, the actual lawsuit says that they’re being sued for requesting WeWork make changes, costing the company money because of said changes when they didn’t move in. [Emphasis ours.]

7. Under the Contract, WeWork agreed to provide Lucky with a WeWork Membership, which included the right to use certain office space and to access certain services. In exchange, Lucky agreed to pay WeWork $106,666 per month for the first twelve month membership period and $111,666 per month for a second twelve month membership period, including a security deposit equivalent in value to three months of membership (or $319,998).

8. Lucky requested that WeWork alter its standard design specifications and configure WeWork’s office space in accordance with Lucky’s unique requirements.

9. In reliance upon Lucky’s representations that Lucky intended to fulfill its obligations under the Contract, beginning in January 2015 and into the summer of 2015, WeWork performed substantial work to construct and configure WeWork’s office space in accordance with Lucky’s detailed specifications, at a total cost of approximately $470,000.

10. Lucky has informed WeWork that it does not intend to utilize the office space that WeWork custom constructed and configured in accordance with Lucky’s unique requirements.

From where, exactly, Lucky is producing the content that still lives on their website is unclear; they seem to have a handful of editorial staffers, though obviously, those working the ecommerce side of the site are less visible. The only employee listed on their website is Chief Executive Officer Josh Berman, the original head of the “content-to-commerce company” Beachmint, which took the name of The Lucky Group when the two companies merged. Their former leader, Eva Chen, seems very happy at her new job at Instagram.