Before he was a billionaire, WeWork CEO Adam Neumann was broke. Here's the NYC building where he and his wife lived in a tiny apartment before he built a $47 billion company

Katie WarrenMay 18, 2019, 19:45 IST

adam and rebekah neumann in 2009Theo Wargo/Getty Images

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann's coworking company is worth $47 billion.
Neumann himself is worth an estimated $4.1 billion, according to Forbes, but the WeWork CEO hasn't always been rich.
Neumann and his wife, Rebekah, once lived in a tiny apartment at 166 2nd Avenue in New York City, he told Business Insider's Alyson Shontell and Rich Feloni.
Here's a look inside the East Village building, where a studio apartment is now renting for $3,098.
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WeWork CEO Adam Neumann's coworking company is worth $47 billion, but not too long ago, he was broke.

Neumann and his wife, Rebekah, once lived "at 166 2nd Avenue [in New York City] in an apartment smaller than this office," he told Business Insider's Alyson Shontell and Rich Feloni in a recent interview.

Today, a studio apartment in the East Village building is renting for $3,098, and the median monthly rent in the neighborhood is $3,150.

Here's a look inside the New York building where Neumann and his wife lived before they were billionaires.

See Before he was a billionaire, WeWork CEO Adam Neumann was broke. Here's the NYC building where he and his wife lived in a tiny apartment before he built a $47 billion company >>

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann's coworking company is worth $47 billion and filed to go public in December 2018.

The Israeli-born entrepreneur launched WeWork in 2010 with his wife, Rebekah, and his business partner Miguel McKelvey. Now, it's one of the most valuable companies in the world.

But not too long ago, Neumann was broke.

The WeWork CEO told Business Insider in a recent interview that he and his wife, Rebekah, at one point lived in a tiny apartment at 166 2nd Avenue in New York City.

Neumann didn't specify the year they lived there, but it was likely sometime after 2009, the year he met his wife.

The street level of the building is occupied by a liquor store and a Mediterranean restaurant and hookah lounge, according to Google Maps.

As of August 2018, scaffolding was erected on the front of the building.

The building sits right across the street from St. Mark's Church-In-The-Bowery in Manhattan's East Village, a neighborhood where today's median monthly rent is $3,150.

That's lower than the median rent in Manhattan as a whole, which is $3,325, according to StreetEasy.

In 2010, the East Village's median rental price was about $2,600, as compared to Manhattan's $2,880 at the time.

166 2nd Avenue is a 15-story, pre-war building built in 1929.

It comes with a 24-hour doorman and laundry in the basement, according to the listing.

The only rental currently available in the building is a studio apartment for $3,098.

Other studios in the building recently rented for between $2,725 and $3,150, while one-bedrooms have rented for between $4,550 and $4,695, according to StreetEasy.

The studio currently available in the building comes with stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, including a dishwasher.

It's one of 159 units in the building.

The listing describes the apartment as "a perfect mix between elegance and location in Prime East Village."

The apartment is listed with Thomas Perry and Elsa Duarte of Citi Habitats.

Today, Neumann's real-estate holdings are much costlier than a $3,098 studio.

The WeWork CEO bought a Greenwich Village townhouse for $10.5 million in 2014, according to Bisnow. And in 2017, he spent $35 million on property on Gramercy Park, The Real Deal reported.

He and his wife also reportedly own homes in Westchester County and the Hamptons.

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