A Lighthouse Flickers on in Venice

Issue #316 | Feb. 18, 2025

Last week, creator economy behemoth Whalar opened its flagship clubhouse, The Lighthouse, a members-only communal space for creators just blocks from the Venice boardwalk in Los Angeles. The two day opening festival produced in partnership with Tribeca Film Festival offered panels, educational workshops, dance parties, and performances. A crowd of over 200 creatives came together to take in the digs (and get pitched on membership).

The building is an old 1930’s post office built during FDR’s public works boom. It has been completely renovated with creatives in mind, save for the enormous New Deal-era mural of Venice founder Abbot Kinney lording over the restored lobby.

The two-day opening festival, produced in partnership with Tribeca Film Festival, offered panels, educational workshops, dance parties, and performances.1930sThere are several podcast sets of various sizes, a music studio, a live theater, a test kitchen, a gaming room, and flex rooms for meetings, rehearsals, dance videos, whatever. Every room is wired for broadcast and production. The filming opportunities in this space are innumerable and impressive.

Speaking of filming, the space also boasts a rental counter for all kinds of gear. You’ll find camera, lighting, and audio equipment ready and waiting.

It’s a welcome offering for those of us who have resorted to “renting” cameras from Best Buy by simply paying the restocking fee when we return them 14 days later (Note: do not do this anymore; they do keep track, and it isn’t cost-effective in the long run). The Lighthouse equipment rentals won’t be free, but we’re told members will get a certain amount of credits to use as a part of their membership fee.

Which, unsurprisingly, is not cheap.

An individual creator membership starts at $5,750 per year, or a squad of you could go in for as little as $5,000 per member. Office space with 24/7 access starts at $5,000 per month; not bad for the zip code but somewhat steep for the co-working space market.

The location presents another challenge for creators I spoke to: Most don’t live on the Westside. Call it creator geographic bias, but most of the creatives I know in LA live in the East if they’re moderately successful, the Hills if they’re uber successful, and the Valley if they’re grinding away. Maybe Hollywood, if they literally just got to town. I know there are exceptions; don’t @ me.

Venice and the rest of the Westside are mostly just where the VCs, tech platforms, and marketing agencies wind up. However, maybe that’s the whole point.

The space itself is a giant experiential billboard, and Whalar’s various talent and marketing agencies know how to sell a billboard. Shopify and Samsung both had visible presences in the space, the latter through slick-looking Frame TVs on the walls, the former with a pop-up merch booth in the expansive outdoor area. I’d expect to see more brands cropping up in that space. The opportunities for co-branded series and talent-led creative moments seem too good to pass up.

All that said, new things are hard, and The Lighthouse is still learning on the fly with the rest of us. The music studio is said to be heavily booked up through the next couple of months, so the demand for space already outweighs the supply. Another Lighthouse is slated to open in Brooklyn this year, which means double the need for members, sponsors, and programming on two coasts.

For mid-to-high-tier creators who regularly flit between New York and Los Angeles, having a space in both places to work and record could easily be worth $500 a month or more. It’s not for everyone, but if it’s for you, it’s very much for you.

And at that level, ambition is generally something those creators all share, competitively and collegiately. Being in a room filled with creative individuals with some level of notoriety can be equally intoxicating and intimidating. But it’s an energy and a scene that creativity generally thrives in.

Collabs can happen in line for coffee; partnerships can spring forth over cigarettes on the patio (I did not specifically ask if the patio was smoking or non-smoking, but the NYU art school romantic in me hopes at least a portion of it is).

Regardless, Passionfruit is always excited to see places and spaces for creative people to gather, and Whalar is among the best in the business at this stuff. We’ve come a long way from chaotic creator houses, and The Lighthouse team could scale this collective network of creators in ways those clans never dreamed of.

We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on both coasts as it happens.

– James Del, Publisher

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JOB BOARD

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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

Speaking of scams: If you haven’t already, check out MegaLag’s bombshell video on Honey.

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