Wireless speaker giant and home audio pioneer Sonos, which got its start in Santa Barbara, is moving its offices to Goleta early next year, Noozhawk has learned.

Sonos plans to move to 301 Coromar in Goleta. The firm’s headquarters is at 35 E. Mason St.

“Our goal was to consolidate much of the Sonos team under a single roof, occupying space that will bring us together and accelerate our continued growth and innovation as the world’s leading sound experience company,” Erin Pategas, Sonos spokeswoman, said in a statement to Noozhawk.

The company will retain its anechoic chambers, a sound-testing room, in downtown Santa Barbara “and have found an excellent location in Goleta where we look forward to building what comes next from Sonos in this new home,” Pategos said.

Pategos added “Sonos has a rich history in the local Santa Barbara community and we will always remain part of this vibrant, beach side technology hub.”

The move is the latest example of the upheaval in the commercial real estate industry coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Large employers are still allowing employees to work remotely, which has eliminated the need for bigger spaces. Some companies are subleasing, while others are moving to new locations.

Over the years Sonos has occupied multiple spaces and office buildings downtown. They also have offices on Chapala Street.

“It certainly shows a change in the company culture as the founders were the biggest supporters of growing in downtown Santa Barbara,” said Austin Herlihy, a Radius commercial real estate broker. “If I were trying to get people back to the office, a Funk Zone building with ocean views would be a more attractive place to work than a Goleta office park.”

Sonos, which is valued at just under $2 billion, launched the first wireless multi-room home sound system in 2005. In October 2017, the company launched its first voice-enabled wireless speaker, Sonos One, and a voice-enabled home theater speaker, Sonos Beam, in 2018. Sonos has about 100 streaming content providers, including Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify and TuneIn. The company went public in 2018.

Radius Commercial Real Estate is marketing the soon-to-be lease for the 35 E. Mason St. building.

“We plan to turn the ground floor into retail and lease the top two floors to either office or some other re-positioning,” Herlihy said. “We are still exploring all of our options.”

Herlihy said he plans to put it on the market in the next week or two. With the size of the business, the move to the Cabrillo Business Park is not likely to be completed until early next year. Noozhawk reported the company in 2018 had about 400 employees in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse said the move was not good news, but that at least Sonos will remain regional.

“If they are trying to right-size their business that is their decision,” Rowse told Noozhawk. “It would be nice to have them still in the city limits, they are a homegrown company.”

He noted that the company for years occupied multiple offices downtown.

“They really went out of their way to stay in Santa Barbara,” Rowse said.