One-Third Of Snap Layoffs Will Hit Santa Monica
Snapchat parent company Snap Inc.’s decision to layoff 20% of its workforce will mean nearly 500 jobs lost in California.
About one-third of messaging app Snap’s planned layoffs will hit Santa Monica, where the company is headquartered. The company filed notice with the state Employment Development Department at the end of August that it would lay off 401 employees in the city. These jobs alone account for about 30% of the estimated 1,300 layoffs companywide.
Snap announced plans to cut its workforce last week. Though its announcement about laying off workers was accompanied by plans to reduce its investments in real estate, it remains unclear what the loss of these jobs will mean for the company’s office footprint in the city.
The notice, filed Aug. 31, lists 3000 31st St., a Santa Monica Airport property, as the address associated with the cuts. The 31st Street address appears on previously filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission as the address for the company’s principal executive offices.
“The layoff does not affect everyone at that site, but we expect the layoffs to be permanent,” Snap Vice President of Talent Scott Withycombe wrote in a letter to the state's Employment Development Department.
The letter states 374 Snap employees and 27 employees of a Snap subsidiary, PSA Risk Management Services, would be let go effective Sept. 1.
Snap leased about 80K SF across two buildings at the airport as of February 2021, airport commission records show. It’s unclear how much space it has now, when its lease expires and how many employees total work out of the offices at this address. A representative from the Santa Monica Airport declined to comment for this story.
Spokespeople for the city of Santa Monica, which manages the real estate portfolio at the airport, did not immediately respond to inquiries from Bisnow.
Snap leases about 500K SF in Santa Monica, with the majority concentrated around the airport, said Newmark Director of Research for Southern California Dain Fedora. Boston Properties' Santa Monica Business Park, where Snap took an additional 140K SF, is also near the airport.
Newmark tracks sublease space internally but has not yet seen Snap’s space here go on the market, Fedora said.
