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Looks like things have gotten serious for Grindr, who are moving in to a new place and looking to stay for the long-haul.Last week the gay dating app signed a lease to move into a more spacious office in West Hollywood, upgrading from their current 3,400-square-foot office in Hollywood to an 18,000-square-foot, 14th-floor office in the Pacific Design Center's RedBuilding. Although the terms were not disclosed, the lease is described as "long-term" and similar rates at the RedBuilding go for about $1.1 million per year.
"We are pleased to welcome Grindr to the RedBuilding where they join a prestigious roster of creative tenants," said RedBuilding's owner and developer Charles Cohen said in a statement. "Our West Hollywood location puts Grindr at the center of the LA region's thriving and creative epicenter."
The move comes as Grindr looks to expand beyond just being a dating/hookup app for the gay community. "It will always be a dating app but they are hoping to do more of what Playboy did... and expanding into other elements of pop culture that matter to the LGBT community," Ryan Harding of Newmark Knight Grubb Frank, who represented Grindr in the deal, said to The Real Deal. Both the relocation and the expansion of the app's scope comes after Grindr sold a majority stake in the company to a Chinese gaming company.
"We have taken this investment in our company to accelerate our growth," wrote Grindr CEO and founder Joel Simkhai in a blog post, "to allow us to expand our services for you, and to continue to ensure that we make Grindr the number one app and brand for our millions of users."
Grindr will now share a building with other creative companies, including Clique Media, Abrams Artists Agency, Gaumont International Television and Wharelock Industries, who make apps for the Kardashians and Tyler, the Creator.
