Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc., one of Orange County’s fastest-growing public companies in recent years, has inked a lease to more than double the size of its headquarters in Aliso Viejo.
The drug maker recently disclosed plans to relocate its offices to the 30 Enterprise building, where it will occupy about 61,000 square feet of office space, taking up two floors of the four-story building.
The move won’t affect commutes for the company’s local employees. Its current headquarters are one building over at 20 Enterprise, where it occupies about 30,000 square feet.
Both the 20 and 30 Enterprise buildings are part of Parker Properties LP’s 1.7-million-square-foot Summit Office Campus.
The buildings are across the street from Pacific Life Insurance Co.’s corporate office, which is next to the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road.
The Avanir lease was the largest new office deal struck in the past quarter, as well as the largest expansion for an area office tenant during that time, according to year-end brokerage data.
The company—which moved from San Diego to Aliso Viejo in 2006—is said to be in the process of moving its operations to the new office. Its expansion comes as another drug company makes changes to its long-running operations in Orange County. Avanir will be taking over space at 30 Enterprise that had been occupied by Bausch + Lomb Inc., which previously had its eye surgical hub headquartered at the building.
Bausch, which had been based in Rochester, N.Y., began vacating the Aliso Viejo space late last year following its acquisition by Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.—another drug maker with roots in Orange County (see story, page 7).
Avanir is subleasing the bulk of the new space it will occupy at 30 Enterprise from Valeant in a deal that runs through 2020. It’s also leasing about 8,000 additional square feet of space at the building directly from Parker Properties.
Rent
The drug maker’s monthly rent at 30 Enterprise will run between $2.50 and $3.07 per square foot over the course of the sublease, according to regulatory filings.
That works out to monthly rent ranging from about $151,000 this year to $186,000 near the end of the lease.
Avanir said in regulatory filings that it plans to sublease its existing space at 20 Enterprise once its relocation is complete, although real estate sources said the company could opt to hold on to at least part of the building for its own use, if needed.
The company—which recently had a market value of about $500 million—has been on one of the bigger growth spurts seen of late among public companies.
It had $75.3 million in revenue for the 12-month period ending in September 2013, up from $41.3 million in the same period of 2012 and $10.5 million in 2011.
The company had the largest two-year revenue growth of any public company with annual sales of less than $100 million last year, according to the Business Journal’s November ranking of area companies.
Nuedexta, which treats pseudobulbar affect, is Avanir’s primary drug.
Pseudobulbar affect is a neurological condition marked by uncontrollable outbursts of laughing or crying.
Avanir’s product also is being tested in clinical trials for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease; a recent trial in which the product was used to treat effects of multiple sclerosis were not successful.
Avanir had 267 employees as of December. The company said it added 25 sales representatives last quarter.
