The Wing co-founder Audrey Gelman is being sued for $1.7 million in back rent after allegedly reneging on a financial guarantee in the company’s lease she personally signed, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court. The female-centric co-working spaces debuted in 2017, providing libraries with books by women, panels with female celebrities and influencers, and childcare. But controversy dogged the enterprise and its “Instagram-ready feminism,” and The Wing, which charged up to $250 a month for membership, shut down for good in September. Gelman stopped communicating with the owner of the building in which The Wing SoHo leased two floors, skipping out on an unpaid balance of $1,637,408.57, the suit claims. With interest and attorneys’ fees, the landlord, 477 Realty LLC, is demanding at least $1,780,995.59 from Gelman, who did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Wednesday morning.
