THE TECH OASIS KNOWN AS SILICON BEACH

It's no secret that Silicon Beach is the place to be if you're a tech company.

Several factors — not least of which is the SoCal lifestyle — are drawing an increasing number of firms, including the Honest Co and IMAX. Facebook signed a 50k SF lease at Playa Jefferson (above) last year. "It's an area everyone is gravitating toward as being a good spot," A & G partner Daniel Green said.

Silicon Beach — Playa Vista in particular — allows these companies more square footage than they can find elsewhere, according to Green. They are attracted to having such scale while also being near the beach.

Silicon Beach, as some CRE experts point out, stretches beyond Playa Vista to include Venice, Marina del Rey and Santa Monica.

The Paloma Group principal Chris Cunningham said the perfect weather and that the beach cities offer so many amenities adds up to a "perfect storm for young, enthusiastic, talented entrepreneurs looking for the most attractive place to grow their businesses."

Retail Design Collaborative project design director Jonathan Lopez said the coastal regions of Southern California "are starting to be a stronghold for tech." Along with real estate, the "equally driving force is the cultural capital I think Southern California has," he said. It is less about geographic diversity, but driven more by the Southern California lifestyle and "the indoor/outdoor fluidity," he said. "Obviously, the beach is an amenity that not all the campuses up in the Bay Area have, so I think there's a lot of richness in the diversity of the Southern California lifestyle."

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