A creative office campus, currently serving as headquarters for Honey Science, is on the market in Santa Barbara with an asking price of $14.35 million, or approximately $763 per square foot. According to a listing from Hayes Commercial Group, the property offers 18,792 square feet of space and is located in the center of Santa Barbara’s “Techtopia.”
Located on two parcels at 530 Chapala Street and 25 W. Cota Street, the office campus consists of two three-story buildings, which was initially built in 1925 before being remodeled in 2017. The building is currently owned by the Santa Barbara-based Paskin Group, which acquired it in 2014.
“The newly constructed buildings feature distinctive architecture, natural light throughout, tech-friendly infrastructure, and on-site parking. Offering one of the few rooftop patios in town, the expansive views showcase both islands and mountains in the same frame. Walking distance from every downtown amenity, this investment is positioned to command strong rental income for the foreseeable future,” the offering memorandum states.
The property is currently leased to audio product manufacturing company Sonos, which is subleasing the space to Honey. According to the listing, Sonos’ eight-year lease is set to expire in 2025 with three five-year lease extension options. The lease also contains 2.5 percent rent bumps and currently offers an annual net operating income of $634,731.
Honey, the subletter of the space, is a Los Angeles-based tech company that offers a browser extension to find users coupons. The company was recently acquired by Paypal in a deal worth $4 billion and currently services 17 million users. The company also occupies offices in London, Los Angeles, Boulder, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Romania. Upon taking over the lease in Santa Barbara, the company also completed approximately $1.7 million worth of tenant improvements, which include new open layouts with small breakout rooms, private offices and conference rooms.
The Santa Barbara office property is located in a region of the city dubbed “Techtopia” due to the amount of tech companies which occupy space there. Nearby, companies include Amazon, Invoca and LogicMonitor. The property is also in close proximity to retail amenities at the Paseo Nuevo shopping mall. The property is adjacent to the Hotel Santa Barbara just a block from downtown Santa Barbara, which sees 6.1 million visitors per year.
The listing also shows that Santa Barbara’s office market has seen relatively low vacancies, with the average quarterly vacancy rate at 5.2 percent over the last 10 years. Because of tight geographic constraints, new office space is very limited with only 270,000 square feet of space delivered in the past 12 years.
Hayes Commercial Group did not respond to a request for comment.
