Snapchat is planning to open a new London office in Farringdon, as the tech giant targets a significant expansion of its UK workspace.
Parent company Snap Inc is in talks to take 114,000 sq ft of office space at developer HB Reavis’s flagship new building called Bloom, EG understands.
The deal would represent a big upsizing from Snapchat’s current London base at 77 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1, to the new office on Farringdon Road, EC1. The social media company is under offer on the second-to-sixth floors at the newly completed building.
The letting would also come as a vote of confidence in the central London office market, which is still suffering from prolonged uncertainty over the future of work caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
California-based Snapchat is the latest of several tech companies targeting new offices in Farringdon, which has become the go-to area of London for big social media firms with millennial and Generation Z-focused products.
In April, EG revealed that Depop was lining up a new office nearby which would see it nearly double its London workspace.
Before that, TikTok confirmed that it will move into the Kaleidoscope building in Farringdon in a long-anticipated 15-year leasing deal.
Snap Inc has enjoyed a bumper year during the pandemic, recently revealing that revenues rose 66% year-on-year to $770m (£550m) in the first quarter of 2021. It has 280m daily users, a figure that has surged by more than a fifth since the Covid-19 outbreak began.
It is unclear whether Snapchat intends to retain its two existing London offices, which include its 20,000 sq ft international hub on Shaftesbury Avenue, where it signed a 10-year lease in early 2017. It also occupies all four floors of Columbia Threadneedle’s 12,570 sq ft 7-11 Lexington Street, W1.
However, the company is believed to have re-geared its leases at the West End offices to allow for the business to move elsewhere. Prime rents in Clerkenwell are around £75 per sq ft, according to JLL.
HB Reavis’s 145,000 sq ft Bloom is set to open officially this month, and the remaining floors are still available for prelet. Dutch bank Rabobank had previously been in talks to take 90,000 sq ft at the scheme, but the deal collapsed last year.
CBRE is advising Snap Inc, while Compton is the leasing agent at Bloom. All parties declined to comment.
To send feedback, e-mail alex.daniel@eg.co.uk or tweet @alexmdaniel or @EGPropertyNews
