Spreading its wings: E-scooter startup Bird inks lease at Colorado Center

The firm took roughly 58K sf at the Colorado Center

Bird Executive Travis Vanderzanden, Colorado Center
Bird Executive Travis Vanderzanden, Colorado Center

Bird, the company whose popular electric scooters are flocking cities nationwide, has signed a lease to occupy roughly 58,000 square feet at the Colorado Center in Santa Monica, The Real Deal has learned.

Sources close to the deal confirmed the full-floor lease is a short to medium-term solution as the company seeks to expand even further.

The Colorado Center, which spans a whole city block, is a six-building office campus with nearly 1.2 million square feet. It’s 84 percent occupied, with tenants that include Edmunds.com, a car shopping website, and Kite Pharma, a biotech pharmaceutical company.

Boston Properties acquired Blackstone Group’s nearly 50 percent stake in the property for $511 million in May 2016. The other half belongs to financial giant TIAA.

The deal marked the developer’s first foray into West Los Angeles, predating its $628 million purchase of the Santa Monica Business Park earlier this year.

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Neither Bird nor Boston Properties responded to requests for comment.

Bird, a last-mile solution for commuters that charges by the minute, has grown tremendously in recent months. The firm is expected to hit a $2 billion valuation soon, up from a $300 million valuation just earlier this year.

On the Westside, the scooter has become a nightmare situation for city officials who are struggling with how to regulate the startup. The Santa Monica City Council is expected to vote on a pilot program that could cap the number of scooters and up permitting fees in September. Up the coast, San Francisco officials have already banned the popular scooter, a favorite among millennials.

The company, founded by Travis VanderZanden, operates in 22 cities in the country and plans to expand into Europe. Its competitor, Uber-backed Lime, can be found in about 70 cities in the U.S.