Sugar Publishing, Inc., a privately owned media company that produces a network of blogs and ecommerce sites for women, leased 15,300 square feet at 3525 Eastham Avenue in Culver City’s Hayden Tract this month.  Sugar follows Mahalo Inc., another digital media company, who leased 13,300 square feet in November at the same property and also left Santa Monica in search of more affordable creative offices.

Culver City has become one of the best Westside alternatives to Santa Monica for creative space at significantly lower rents.  The area is now a hotbed for entertainment and media companies due to its prime location on the Westside, its new restaurant and art scene, and its plentiful supply of converted warehouses. With 3525 Eastham being positioned well in the Hayden Tract, PMI designed the building with creative companies in mind.  According to Jeffrey Palmer of PMI, “PMI originally designed 3525 Eastham for software and web based companies that need high density while maintaining a creative environment; although the design works very well for entertainment companies as well.”  The 24 foot soaring bow-truss ceiling, multiple oversized glass roll-up doors and numerous skylights help create a sense of spaciousness even with very high employee counts.  The City of Culver City is very interested in attracting digital media firms to the area.  It recently committed to purchase 180 parking space privileges in a parking structure to be built by a local developer.  Culver City has invested in parking and transportation infrastructure (including new redevelopments at the nearby Expo light rail station at Washington and National) to help entice these new digital technology companies to Culver City.  In addition, a new Hayden Tract Owners Association has formed to build 120 additional parking spaces on a former Cal Tran easement and to promote other improvements to the Hayden Tract.

Sugar Publishing has expanded from their San Francisco & New York locations to begin their tenure in Los Angeles.  Sugar prides itself in providing their 20 million global unique users insanely addictive content, unmatched shopping experiences and a robust social community.  The company has two business segments focusing on original content and commerce with a portfolio of brands including PopSugar, FabSugar, BellaSugar, FitSugar, GeekSugar, PetSugar, and PopSugar Retail Therapy.  Cementing their spot as a media force to be reckoned with, in May 2010, Sugar was named among the Hottest Companies in San Francisco. Sugar’s employees are extremely passionate about the brand, which shows in the amount and quality of content they produce on their numerous sites.

Brian Sugar currently serves as the company’s CEO and Publisher, while Lisa Sugar is the company’s Editor-in-Chief.  According to their website, the story behind the creation of Sugar, Inc. came from a comment at Oscars party Brian and Lisa Sugar threw at their home in February of 2005.  In 2006, they received Series A Funding from Sequoia Capital and have been expanding ever since.

During the pre-leasing process, PMI Properties was represented by David Wilson of Lee & Associates and Sugar Publishing, Inc. was represented by Matt Brainard of Studley, Inc.