A record number of local companies made their stock market debut in 2021, with additional listings carrying over into 2022.
The area’s real estate market has clearly benefitted, as the newly public firms have inked deals inside and outside of OC to expand their operations.
Deals have ranged from office leases by electric carmakers to new gyms and movie theaters, from Irvine to San Clemente.
Eleven local companies went public last year via traditional IPOs, while several others went public by reverse mergers using the SPAC route.
The collection is the largest local group to go public in at least two decades. The 11 firms with traditional IPOs raised a combined $15.2 billion, an all-time record for OC.
Here and page 31 is a snapshot of several newly public firms making notable real estate moves; they occupy well over a cumulative 1 million square feet in OC, and have been responsible for north of 300,000 square feet of new deals over the past six months.
Rivian Drives Ahead
Rivian Automotive Inc. (Nasdaq: RIVN) has seen the greatest physical growth among new public firms.
That comes as no surprise: the firm raised $13.5 billion in its IPO and is now among OC’s most valuable public companies, with a valuation near $40 billion as of last week.
Including several office and industrial deals inked over the past year, the company now counts nearly half a million square feet of space in Irvine and Tustin.
In its most recent reported deal, Rivian inked a 70,000-square-foot office lease for the entirety of 40 Parker, a warehouse in the Irvine Spectrum submarket. The building is about 10 miles down the Santa Ana (5) Freeway from Rivian’s main headquarters, which span about 190,000 square feet near the Market Place shopping center (see story).
Rivian also recently moved into about 40,000 square feet of space at 9750 Irvine Blvd., part of the former Toshiba Corp. campus, which is one of the larger industrial properties in the Spectrum.
The electric vehicle maker employs over 10,000. It reported fourth-quarter revenue of $54 million, missing the $60 million expected by analysts, though the firm was comfortably sitting on $18.4 billion of cash on hand at the end of 2021.
The company produced 1,015 vehicles by the end of last year and delivered 920, falling short of its production goal of 1,200, due in part to industry strains on the supply chain (see story, page 6).
Outside of OC, Rivian is growing its manufacturing operations to ramp up capacity.
It’s developing a second manufacturing site in Atlanta that’s expected to produce up to 400,000 vehicles per year once it opens, which is tentatively slated for 2024. Its factory in Normal, Ill., is slotted to make 200,000 vehicles annually.
Flat Screens, Rising Growth for Vizio
Irvine-based Vizio Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: VZIO) hired more than 200 people this past year, including at its multi-building Irvine Spectrum headquarters where it counts about 100,000 square feet of space
The media company and flat-screen TV and soundbar maker is also looking outside of California for new opportunities.
Vizio, which went public in March 2021 with $180 million raised, said it had opened its new Denver office in April 2021, where it planned to hire more than 100 employees by the end of 2022.
The Cherry Creek office, dubbed the Tech Innovation Office, is already home to 140 employees, local reports note, including engineering and tech specialists.
More hires are on the way: the company lists dozens of open job positions for both Denver and Irvine on its website.
Founded by William Wang in 2002, Vizio counts north of 250 employees in Irvine, representing about a quarter of the firm’s total employee count. It also has offices in Dakota Dunes, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco and New York City.
The company, the largest TV maker based in the U.S., is ramping up its new advertising business, Platform+, its smallest yet fastest-growing revenue source.
“This is only the first 20 years for Vizio and the thing I look forward to the most is to have Vizio a lot bigger than me,” Wang previously told the Business Journal. “I think I’ve done that and I think Vizio [will] keep growing with all the talented people we have. We’re at our prime time.”
Now Playing: Moving iMage Technologies in San Clemente
Fountain Valley-based digital cinema company Moving iMage Technologies posted the smallest IPO of the newly public cohort, but the company is still on the big screen locally.
The company (NYSE: MITQ), which started trading on July 8 with $12.3 million raised, partnered with Metropolitan Theaters Corp. to open a 10-screen luxury theater at the Outlets at San Clemente.
Irvine-based construction firm R.D. Olson Construction was the general contractor on the 45,000-square-foot project, which has luxury recliner seats, a full-service restaurant and bar and in-auditorium service.
MiT designs, manufactures and installs custom equipment for the cinema industry, and also offers software and consulting solutions for theater management. The company’s Caddy brand makes cup holders, trays and other products to entertainment and sports venues.
“This is the second new construction project where we have relied on MiT to provide a complete turnkey solution of projection, sound, screens, installation, and commissioning that were both on time and on budget,” Dale Davison, senior vice president of operations and development at Metropolitan Theatres, said in a statement.
MiT is based out of a 28,000-square-foot facility that houses the firm’s corporate offices, engineering and manufacturing, distribution and service divisions.
RxSight: All Eyes on OC
In the past year, ophthalmic device firm RxSight Inc. (Nasdaq: RXST) went public, posted a 54% jump in revenue, and plotted a physical expansion to boot.
The company recently added to its Aliso Viejo headquarters, signing a 10,854-square-foot deal for part of two stories at 125 Columbia. It will use the space for office uses, including sales and marketing departments.
RxSight now counts 121,000 square feet of office, R&D; and industrial space across four buildings in Aliso Viejo. It has been a tenant at the city’s Pacific Park complex since 2016, about three years before it began selling its products.
Established in 1997 as Calhoun Vision Inc., RxSight develops and manufactures what it says is the first artificial lens that enables doctors to improve the vision of patients after cataract surgery.
The expansion comes a little over a month after the company reported full year 2021 revenue of $22.6 million, a 54% increase from 2020, which the company largely credits to an upswing in device sales.
For more on RxSight, see story.
Space Isn’t an Issue for Terran Orbital
Small-satellite maker Terran Orbital Corp., the Florida-based parent company of Irvine’s Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc., has been a bright spot for OC’s leasing market.
The company, which went public via SPAC last month, was behind two major Irvine deals totaling 150,000 square feet over the past six months.
This includes a nearly 89,000-square-foot lease at 400 Spectrum Center Drive, inked in September. The space, spread over four floors, will be used for design and development of the company’s small satellites and its “rapidly expanding workforce,” the firm said in a statement.
The deal is the largest reported new lease for an area office tower over the past year.
Terran also signed a 10-year lease early this year for an additional 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Irvine, adjacent to the company’s existing facility at 15330 Barranca Parkway, near the city’s train station.
Construction is underway at that 37,751- square-foot site to “enlarge satellite manufacturing space to support the company’s robust pipeline,” Terran said in a September press release.
“Terran Orbital is rapidly expanding its operations to support the growing need for our services,” Marc Bell, co-founder and CEO of Terran Orbital, said in September. “The new space [at 400 Spectrum] will significantly increase our operational efficiency and permit us to continue to expand our workforce at a rapidly accelerating pace while also allowing us to expand our manufacturing capacity at our current location.”
Tyvak, which was recently awarded a contract to build 42 satellites for the Pentagon to support “global warfighter missions,” employs 141 in Orange County, placing it as No. 17 among the top aerospace firms and defense contractors locally. Top clients include the Department of Defense and NASA.
Terran and Tyvak now counts north of 187,000 square feet in OC.
Xponential Works Out Franchising Plan, Pumps Up Retail Real Estate Presence
Shares for Irvine’s Xponential Fitness Inc. (NYSE: XPOF) opened at $12 in July and have since jumped to nearly $21 for a market cap of nearly $980 million.
It’s not just the share price that’s pumped up.
The company ended the third quarter with more than 1,900 studios and systemwide sales in North America of $192.4 million, up 93% from the prior-year period.
Brands under the company’s umbrella include Club Pilates, StretchLab, CycleBar, Row House, YogaSix, Pure Barre, Stride, Rumble, Body Fit Training and AKT. The company in November announced a development agreement with Irvine-based Fitness International LLC to see at least 350 franchised locations in the next five years inside of Fitness International’s LA Fitness and City Sports Club locations.
Construction on the new locations began during the first quarter.
Xponential is based out of a 26,273-square-foot office at 17877 Von Karman Ave., just down the street from Fitness International’s headquarters.
