Viacom subleasing AwesomenessTV’s 90k sf lease at Pen Factory: sources

Less than a month after acquiring AwesomenessTV, Viacom has put the digital media company’s 90,000-square-foot lease in Santa Monica up for sublease, The Real Deal has learned.

Sources close to the deal said that AwesomenessTV is likely relocating to Columbia Square in Hollywood, where Viacom has their 210,000-square-foot West Coast headquarters.

With AwesomenessTV’s space on the market, a single tenant could now lease Clarion Partners’ entire Pen Factory, a newly redeveloped 220,000-square-foot office campus in the heart of Silicon Beach.

Matthew Miller, a Cresa broker who represents AwesomenessTV and Viacom, declined to comment.

Neither Viacom nor AwesomenessTV responded to requests for comment. Clarion Partners and Lincoln Property Co., Clarion’s third-party developer, also did not respond.

Rick Buckley and Owen Fileti at LA Realty Partners, who represented Clarion in AwesomenessTV’s lease, did not respond to requests for comment. They are also leasing the other larger, 132,000-square-foot building on the campus.

AwesomenessTV, a video streaming service that caters to a young audience, signed a deal to occupy one of the two buildings in the newly developed office campus in July 2016, while the property was still under construction. It then built out the interiors to include office space and small production stages, TRD previously reported.

Viacom acquired the digital media company this July for an undisclosed amount. The company said it will incorporate AwesomenessTV, and its 158 million subscribers, into Viacom Digital Studios.

New York-based Clarion completed the adaptive reuse project in early 2017. Formerly a 1950s-era Papermate factory, the property now includes outdoor common areas, roll-up doors, private patios and a bike path.