450 Workers Headed to Other Sites After HQ Sale
Parker Aerospace, the division of Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin Corp. that recently sold its 42-acre headquarters property at the corner of Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive, has decided to move the roughly 450 employees there to other existing facilities in Irvine.
Parker Aerospace, which employs about 1,750 people in all in Irvine, had been considering moving about 300 members of its air and fuel division and another 150 senior executives to a company plant in Tolleson, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb.
But a lobbying effort by local officials, concessions and a streamlined city permitting process convinced Parker Aerospace officials to relocate the employees to nearby facilities, said Cheryl Flohr, a spokeswoman for Parker Aerospace.
“As we evaluated the costs of relocating the air and fuel division in Irvine, initially there were some hurdles we were concerned about that had to do with environmental issues,” she said. “We still had to comply with all city regulations, but the process of working through the steps required was put on a fast track by the city of Irvine. The process was a simpler one to get through as far as the paperwork required.”
Under a revised plan, Parker Aerospace will relocate the air and fuel division employees to the company’s facility at 16666 Von Karman Avenue in Irvine. The 150 senior executives, along with roughly 500 customer-support personnel currently housed at the Von Karman facility, will move to the company’s Irvine Spectrum complex at 14300 Alton Parkway.
Once all the moves are completed by the end of the year, about 1,450 Parker Aerospace employees will call the Irvine Spectrum home.
In June, Parker-Hannifin completed its acquisition of Orange-based Wynn’s International Inc. which employs about 15 people in OC and 2,000 company-wide.
Parker Hannifin announced plans to sell its 42-acre property earlier this year, sparking intense competition among local and some national firms who coveted the well-located property. Last month, Parker Hannifin announced that it had sold the property to KFPLB Michelson Jamboree LLC, an entity that includes Expo Design Center, a division of Home Depot Inc., which has plans to build a store on the site.
Destination Irvine, a division of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce, and city officials lobbied Parker Hannifin to maintain its operations in Irvine.
“I contacted them early on once we knew that (42-acre) facility was for sale,” said Paul Hiller, managing director of Destination Irvine.
The key was determining the concerns of Parker Aerospace officials, Hiller said. In this case, it was noise-abatement issues,the division sometimes tests jet engine valves,and the timing of the permitting process.
“They indicated that if they couldn’t get the permitting done in time and in fact get under the noise-level requirements with the new facilities they were going to take a close look at moving this facility and incorporating it in Arizona,” Hiller said. “It was a question of having city officials get into the ballgame early on, and they did that.”
Irvine officials reduced the amount of time it would take to check and approve plans for the move and some construction that had to occur in the Von Karman facility.
“The other key thing we did was find a way to permit and process (plans) in phases, which let them get on with building parts of their new facility that were critical,” said Eric Tolles, chief building official with the city of Irvine.
This approach will allow Parker Aerospace to relocate employees on an ongoing basis and occupy parts of a building where improvements have been completed while construction continues in other parts, Tolles said.
The Parker Aerospace deal reflects a continued effort, overlooked during the current economic boom, by local and state officials,in association with private companies such as Southern California Edison,to retain major employers.
One of the most high-profile efforts of this kind occurred during the early-’90s recession, when Taco Bell Corp. was considering relocating to Texas from Irvine. At the time, the ability to retain Taco Bell was viewed as a test of local and state officials’ determination to work with private companies to make it competitive for them to stay in California.
Public officials remain committed to making Orange County and California competitive, Destination Irvine’s Hiller said.
“It gets less attention but it’s still something that’s very important to us,” he said. “We’re working hard to make sure existing businesses don’t run into problems that can’t be resolved.” n