If troubled eToys Inc. is eventually forced to abandon its massive Santa Monica headquarters, it could dampen the steady rate increases that have characterized the Westside real estate market for months.

EToys currently occupies 150,000 square feet in the Westside Media Center at Bundy Drive and Olympic Boulevard.

Gary Gerdemann, a company spokesman, said the firm has an 11-year lease and “has no plans to move its headquarters,” despite the layoff of hundreds of employees last week.

Mark Robinson, corporate managing director at Julien J. Studley Inc. in West Los Angeles, said that if the e-tailer eventually goes out of business, its demise “should assist in flattening the rental rates in Santa Monica which have been rising steadily over the past few years.”

Robinson estimated eToy’s rent as being in the high $3 a square foot range. A new tenant might be able to take the space in its entirety for somewhere in the low $3 per square foot range, Robinson said.

“Any price reduction would depend on whether or not they would chop up the space into smaller pieces, or whether one company would walk in and take it as it is,” he said.

EToys also announced it would close warehouse operations in Commerce and in Greensboro, N.C., within two months and consolidate those operations with existing distribution centers in Ontario and Blairs, Va.

If eToys should eventually give up a large portion of its headquarters, Jim Chang, sales manager at Century 21/Better Homes in Santa Monica, believes there would be plenty of takers for the rest of the space.

“There are a lot of people wanting to rent in the area,” Chang said.