Aerospace and defense contractor Meggitt PLC is relocating its sensing and monitoring systems operations from offices in San Juan Capistrano and New Hampshire to a new divisional headquarters in Irvine, where it plans to ramp up hiring.
The U.K.-based company recently inked a lease at a 186,000-square-foot building near Jamboree Road and the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway.
The building, which is at 14600 Myford Road, previously held the headquarters of industrial printer and printing supply manufacturer Printronix Inc. The property was bought by Newport Beach-based landlord Irvine Company earlier this year.
Terms of Meggitt’s lease have not been disclosed. Irvine Co. executives declined to comment on the transaction.
Sensing Systems
The building currently is being reworked to hold the consolidated operations and North American headquarters of the company’s Meggitt Sensing Systems division, which makes sensors and other measuring products for the aerospace, energy, and defense industries.
The sensing system division expects to see more than $370 million in sales this year, according to company documents.
The division currently operates out of a 124,000-square-foot property that it leases in San Juan Capistrano, as well as a location in Londonderry, N.H. About 300 workers will shift to the Irvine location from San Juan Capistrano. The number of additions from the New Hampshire office is unclear.
The company said in an Oct. 29 letter to customers and suppliers that work to the Myford Road property should be completed by next May, with the consolidated businesses fully operational and all production online by the end of July.
The new property currently counts about 80,000 square feet of offices, 78,000 square feet of manufacturing space and additional warehouse area.
The building was seeing a heavy dose of demolition work to its interior, as well as some exterior landscaping, as of last week.
Hires Expected
The impending move is expected to result in more local hiring under the banner of parent Meggitt PLC, whose Meggitt Defense Systems unit—which makes combat systems and combat training systems —also is based in Irvine. The defense systems unit operates out of a 153,000-square-foot facility in the Irvine Spectrum. That division’s operations are not expected to be affected by the Myford Road relocation.
Meggitt PLC counted more than 500 employees in Orange County overall before it announced plans for the consolidation of its sensing and monitoring operations in Irvine.
The company ranks as OC’s 12th-largest aerospace and defense contractor by employee count, according to Business Journal data.
The company said in its recent letter that it expects the new Myford Road location to have about 400 employees when consolidation is completed next year, and that as many as 500 people could be working out of the new office in the next five to 10 years.
Meggitt already has been hiring some employees in preparation of the move, according to the Oct. 29 letter.
The Myford Road transaction appears to be a coup for Irvine Co., which bought the building this March from Printronix, in what is believed to be the real estate company’s largest OC-based commercial property acquisition of the year. Brokerage reports put the estimated sale price for the deal at a little more than $25 million.
Printronix moved to a smaller location in the Irvine Spectrum following the sale.
Meggitt’s current location in San Juan Capistrano, located at 30700 Rancho Viejo Road, also was part of a notable real estate transaction of late. The building traded hands for just under $19.5 million, or about $157 per square foot, at the end of October, according to CoStar Group Inc. data.
A foreign-based buyer operating under the SA Cosman & Damian LLC name bought the property, according to property records. An affiliate of Los Angeles-based Hackman Capital was listed as the seller.
Brokers with the Newport Beach-based private capital group of CBRE Group Inc., who had the listing for the building, declined to comment on the sale.
Lease
Meggitt, which previously operated out of the San Juan Capistrano office under the Endevco Corp. name, has a lease at the building that runs through next September. It is paying about $187,000 per month under its current lease, according to brokerage data.
The new owner’s plans for the San Juan Capistrano property following Meggitt’s departure have not been disclosed. The property holds the potential to be redeveloped or upgraded, according to CBRE marketing materials for the building, which fronts the San Diego Freeway.
