Social media giant Snap has inked a deal to expand its office lease near its headquarters in Santa Monica, California, in one of the largest office deals for greater Los Angeles in the wake of the pandemic.

Snap signed a 10-year lease for more than 400,000 square feet at Santa Monica Business Park, people familiar with the deal tell CoStar News.

The company is among the biggest tech employers in greater Los Angeles and has been a symbol of the city's rise in attracting tech talent after growing into an international social media giant from its early startup days in the 2010s in L.A.'s Venice neighborhood.

Snap previously occupied roughly 334,000 square feet at the business park that's owned by Boston Properties. Both Snap and the Boston-based landlord didn't respond to requests to comment from CoStar News.

The Santa Monica Business Park is a roughly 1.2 million-square-foot office park spread out over more than 45 acres, according to Boston Properties' website, and is located next door to Snap's headquarters at 3000-3100 31st St., where it occupies some 50,000 square feet.

Snap's growth in greater Los Angeles helped draw other tech companies to what became known as Silicon Beach, or the tech-focused office market along the Pacific Ocean in greater L.A. The New York Times said in 2017 Snap "has already changed the face of Venice, a once bohemian beachside section of Greater Los Angeles."

The recent expansion move comes as Snap continues to consolidate its Los Angeles holdings by relocating small offices in Venice to large spaces in Santa Monica, including the Boston Properties-owned Santa Monica Business Park. In 2022, for example, Snap decamped from a roughly 51,000-square-foot creative office space in Venice that's now being listed for sale.

Snap occupied roughly 720,000 square feet in Santa Monica as of December 2022, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which employed a full-time staff of 5,288 at the end of 2022, is one of the largest tenants in Boston Properties' portfolio.

Snap's deal is among tops in recent years for Los Angeles, surpassing Sony Pictures Animation's move in 2023 to lease roughly 225,000 square feet at Wilshire Courtyard at 5750 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, in what may have been the largest office lease signed in greater L.A. in 2023.

Santa Monica's office market has been weakening in recent years as hybrid work has curbed demand, a trend that's being felt nationally. The Santa Monica market's vacancy is 18%, up from 15.8% one year ago, according to CoStar data.

"Given the rise in vacancy in Santa Monica in recent years it's promising that one of the area's largest tenants recommitted to such a substantial space," said Ryan Patap, senior director of market analytics for CoStar Group in Los Angeles.