Snap wants out of Venice

After renting up close to 400,000 square feet of space in a couple Santa Monica locations, the messaging app Snapchat appears to be leaving its long-time Venice home.

Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, is putting more than half of the properties it rents in Venice up for sublease, reports CoStar.

Combined, the available properties measure about 163,000 square feet, spread across 14 spots in the coastal neighborhood. More than 90,000 square feet of that office space is along the Venice Boardwalk. Snap’s main office on Market Street isn’t up for grabs.

Snap’s move to depart Venice comes in the wake of protests by Venetians who say Snap’s presence has dramatically changed the neighborhood’s character. In response to protests, Snap announced in March that the company would “[concentrate] our future growth outside of Venice.”

Snap leased a significant amount of space—300,000 square feet—in a Santa Monica business park in late 2016. Its agreement there includes the possibility of leasing 100,000 additional square feet as it becomes available. (Snap is leasing almost 80,000 square feet at the Santa Monica Airport too.)

The move represented a change for Snap on the real estate front. The company has drawn the ire of locals in part because it rented office spaces across the neighborhood instead of centralizing in one main office space like many traditional companies do. That strategy resulted in many smaller businesses being pushed out to make room for Snap.

Some real estate brokers specializing in the area anticipate smaller companies will fill the post-Snap vacuum, taking up the spaces vacated by the company and creating a more diverse tech environment overall in the neighborhood, CoStar says.

• Much of Snapchat Disappearing from Venice [CoStar]
• Locals are staging protests at Snapchat, demanding the app leave Venice [Curbed LA]
• Snapchat Taking Over Tons of Space at Santa Monica Airport [Curbed LA]