Snap to Shrink Footprint at Santa Monica Headquarters

Snap wants a real estate haircut in Santa Monica, but can’t decide between a buzz or a trim.

The locally based parent of Snapchat wants to cut its office expansion at Santa Monica Business Park around its headquarters at 2772 Donald Douglas Loop N by as much as 300,000 square feet, the Commercial Observer reported, citing unidentified sources.

The publicly traded camera and social media firm could trim around 160,000 square feet at its 440,000 square feet of offices near Santa Monica Airport, one source said.

Another source told the Observer that Snap aims to downsize its offices by 75 percent, or more than 300,000 square feet.

Neither the landlord, Boston Properties, nor Snap and its brokerage agents, returned requests for comments or additional information.

In 2017, Snap signed a 10-year lease for around 300,000 square feet for its new headquarters at Santa Monica Business Park, within a broader tech hub known as Silicon Beach.

In 2021, the firm expanded its corporate base by another 140,000 square feet, while taking over more than 65 percent of the space vacated by Activision Blizzard, according to the Observer.

Last year, Snap announced it would lay off 20 percent of its workforce, while “reducing” its investment in real estate to cut costs. A TRD analysis found the company had ended 2021 with 1.4 million square feet.

A few months later, Snap told workers they must report to the office four days a week, according to Bloomberg.Boston Properties acquired a 55 percent ownership of the 1.2 million-square-foot business park on Ocean Park Boulevard in 2018 from Blackstone for $627.5 million.

— Dana Bartholomew