Danny Zappin, co-founder and former chief executive of Maker Studios Inc., has cinched coveted creative space in Venice for a fledgling digital media studio.

Zealot Networks signed a five-year lease late last month for about 3,600 square feet at 660 Venice Blvd., a two-building property that was until last year occupied by New York art gallery L&M Arts.

The late-August lease deal came concurrently with the sale of the small red-brick creative campus to a private family investor from Santa Monica for $4.55 million. Terms of the lease deal were not disclosed.

Built in 2008, the compound sits on the site of L.A. author Ray Bradbury’s childhood home. The dilapidated bungalow and a nearby electrical building were razed to make way for the gallery, which was designed by Culver City architect Kulapat Yantrasast of Why Architecture Inc.

Daniel Pickard of Pardee Properties, who represented the buyer in the purchase of the Venice property and then again in the lease deal, said he started pitching the property to tenant brokers as soon as he learned his clients wanted to lease it.

“As soon as we removed contingencies, we started negotiating the lease,” he said, “and because Venice is such a tight market, we were able to find someone pretty quick.”

Zappin launched Zealot last month after receiving $25 million in funding from a group of investors, including 15 former and current Maker employees.

Blake Searles of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. represented Zealot and Rick Hilton and Laura Kalb of Hilton & Hyland represented the seller in the property sale.