The local operations of Japan-based NGK Spark Plug Co. look to be moving to a smaller location in the Irvine Spectrum.
The maker of spark plugs for cars and other vehicles, which has had operations in Irvine for more than 30 years, recently signed a lease to take over 68 Fairbanks, a 73,610-square-foot building in the Spectrum owned by Newport Beach-based Irvine Company.
The building, part of the Fairbanks Industrial Park, has 8,600 square feet of office space, with the remainder of the one-story building serving as warehouse space, according to Irvine Co. marketing materials.
NGK has been operating out of a 125,000-square-foot building elsewhere in the Spectrum that it owns, at 6 Whatney.
That building, near the headquarters of clothing retailer Tilly’s Inc., has been on the market for sale for over a year, according to brokerage data. An asking price has not been disclosed.
The property is also available for lease, according to brokerage materials.
The Whatney property counts a little less than 17,000 square feet of office space and was built in 1980, according to marketing materials from the Irvine office of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services; its brokers are listing the building and also represented NGK in the Fairbanks lease.
Irvine previously served as the U.S. headquarters for NGK, which had employed about 300 people for its local manufacturing and office location near the peak of its local operations.
In 2005 the company moved its U.S. headquarters from Irvine to Wixom, Mich., and in 2010 NGK announced it would move production of spark plugs from Irvine to West Virginia.
The local facility was slated to continue operating as NGK’s West Coast distribution center following that move, the company said in 2010.
The company, based in Nagoya, Japan, is best known for spark plugs and also makes industrial ceramics, electronics and other products. It has yearly sales of $3 billion.
Beer Maker’s Lease
A domestic division of Mexican beer maker Grupo Modelo has inked a lease for new industrial space in Anaheim.
The company’s GModelo USA LLC division signed a 33,480-square-foot industrial lease at 912 Arlee Place, a 90,104- square-foot warehouse building located near Ball Street and the new headquarters of Anaheim-based Extron Electronics.
The Arlee Place building will be used by GModelo as its West Coast hub for promotional goods and marketing, according to brokers with the Irvine office of Jones Lang LaSalle who worked on the deal. GModelo has its U.S. headquarters in Chicago.
Grupo Modelo brews and distributes 13 brands of beer, including Corona Extra, which the company says is the No. 1 Mexican beer sold in the world.
Jones Lang LaSalle’s Zach Niles and Steven Wagner represented GModelo USA in the lease.
The lessor, Spectra Apparel, was represented by Rob Socci and R.J. Socci, from the Orange office of Voit Real Estate Services Inc.
New Brokerage
Toronto-based Avison Young, which bills itself as Canada’s largest independently owned commercial real estate services company, has opened a new brokerage office in Irvine, its first location in Orange County.
The office, at 2030 Main St., opens with two principals, Alan Pekarcik and Daniel Vittone, as well as senior financial analyst John Pianta. All three were last with the Irvine office of Voit Real Estate Services.
Pekarcik and Vittone have completed more than of $4.4 billion worth of sale and lease transactions, covering about 60 million square feet of commercial properties, over their combined careers, according to Avison Young.
The Irvine office is Avison Young’s 20th market outside of Canada. Last month the company opened its fourth Los Angeles office, in downtown L.A.
In a separate personnel move, James McFadden has joined the Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. as a senior managing director. He previously served in a similar role for the Newport Beach office of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.
