Snapchat Leases Former 23andMe Offices in Sunnyvale

Snap is snapping up some new office space in Sunnyvale after 23andMe’s bankruptcy filing.

The social media company, which owns Snapchat, will lease the three-story, 156,050-square-foot building at 223 Mathilda Avenue once home to biotechnology company 23andMe, the Silicon Valley Business Journal and CoStar reported. The lease agreement with landlord Spear Street Capital is set to take effect later this year.

Spear Street bought the building last month from Stockbridge Capital Group for roughly $87.8 million. The San Francisco-based firm repurchased the property from Stockbridge at a significant loss from when it originally sold in 2019 for $183 million.

23andMe leased the building in 2019, though the pandemic upended its office plans. By the time employees began returning to the office in 2021, the genomics company shifted its focus away from Sunnyvale and established its headquarters in South San Francisco.

In September, 23andMe subleased 17,000 square feet at the Mathilda Avenue building to cloud computing startup CoreWeave. 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy six months later and moved to cancel a different lease in Sunnyvale’s Peery Park business district.

Snap is the latest tech company to set up shop in Sunnyvale. Last month, Apple grabbed a 380,039-square-foot office complex at Mathilda Commons, a two-building office park at 615 and 625 Mathilda Avenue, for $350 million, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. The trillion-dollar tech giant also spent $167 million for the three-building Cupertino Gateway complex it leased in Cupertino last month.

Snap is headquartered in Santa Monica and has 25 office locations around the globe, including Bay Area outposts in Palo Alto and San Francisco and international offices in cities like London, Singapore and Berlin, according to Built In.

Originally created as the Snapchat social media app known for its disappearing photos and videos, the company rebranded as Snap in 2016 as it began selling its new Spectacles smartglasses. The fifth iteration of the eyewear product was released in September. — Chris Malone Méndez