Jones Day, one of Orange County’s fastest-growing law firms in the past few years, is anticipating even more growth after signing a big office lease in Irvine.
The Cleveland-based firm, which offers broad corporate and litigation services, signed a 55,000-square-foot lease at Maguire Properties Inc.’s 3161 Michelson tower in Irvine.
It’s the largest lease signed by a law firm this year.
Jones Day will be moving into the tower, part of Los Angeles-based Maguire’s Park Place campus, this summer. It will be taking up all of the eighth floor and much of the seventh floor at the 19-story, 531,000-square-foot building.
The company’s local office had been just across the San Diego (I-405) Freeway in more than 30,000 square feet at Irvine Company’s Jamboree Center.
Jones Day counts about 18 partners in its Irvine office and some 30 associates.
The new office should allow Jones Day to hold more than 70 lawyers upon its opening, with room for additional hires, said Richard Grabowski, managing partner for the Irvine office.
The firm’s already been on a big hiring kick. Jones Day has more than doubled its headcount in Irvine since the start of 2007 by recruiting partners and associates from other local firms.
Recent hires include local lawyers from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw & Pittman LLP, McDermott Will & Emery and Morrison & Foerster LLP.
Jones Day ranked as the No. 19 largest firm by lawyers in the county, according to the Business Journal’s January list of law firms. That was up six spots from a year earlier. Hiring this year should push the firm up a few spots.
Jones Day has seen most of its growth from work for midsize public and private companies, a niche some of the biggest firms have traditionally overlooked. The firm’s international scope,more than half of its offices are overseas,also has been a big draw for clients, Grabowski said.
Joining the Ranks
It joins the local offices of other law firms in 3161 Michelson.
Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP signed an 80,000-square-foot lease for the building before its construction. The firm had been the largest signed tenant at the building until Hyundai Motor Finance Co. announced a nearly 100,000-square-foot lease this fall
More recently, the building landed Miami-based Green-berg Traurig LLP for a 38,000-square-foot lease, as well as St. Louis-based business and litigation firm Bryan Cave LLP, which took 48,000 square feet.
Having multiple law firm tenants already in the same building hasn’t been a drawback for other prospective legal tenants, said Royce Sharf, executive vice president for the Irvine office of tenant brokerage Studley Inc., who represented Jones Day and Bryan Cave in their leases.
The fact that the building’s set to have the name of its largest tenant, Hyundai, on the top of the building rather than another law firm makes it easier to draw multiple legal tenants to the building, Sharf said.
Interest in Building
Maguire’s also added some new non-legal tenants of late. Spirits and wine company Pernod Ricard SA, which bought Absolut Vodka-maker V & S; Group this year, also has signed a good-sized lease at the building, according to Maguire Properties.
The latest batch of leases brings the tower close to 70% full, giving it some life after being open for a year and a half.
Much of Maguire’s recent leasing success is due to the landlord’s more reasonable rents and concessions, Sharf said.
Among the developers of the area’s most recent batch of office towers, Maguire “has been doing a good job of recognizing market conditions. They became more aggressive earlier,” said Sharf.
Terms of the 10-year lease weren’t disclosed. Maguire officials said they haven’t been dropping rents too much at the tower to get deals done.
“For premier assets (like 3161 Michelson), we’re nowhere near the $3 or lower range,” said Peter Johnston, Maguire Properties senior vice president, speaking last week at the RealShare Orange County conference.
Less prominent class A office buildings in OC have seen monthly rent rates dip below $3 per square foot to about $2.50 per square foot, other brokers at RealShare said.
Hyundai’s lease at 3161 Michelson,which includes the top floor of the building, along with top signage,was said to been signed at a monthly lease closer to $4 per square
foot.
