Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc. plans to spend $70 million to build a landmark headquarters for 500 local workers plus room to grow.
The automaker, the U.S. arm of South Korea’s Kia Motors Corp., paid $28 million to The Irvine Company for 21.7 acres of land near the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway and the Eastern (261) Toll Road.
Kia plans to spend another $40 million building a 236,000-square-foot campus at the Jamboree Business Center East.
The company now rents a 153,000-square-foot building at 9801 Muirlands Blvd. in Irvine.
“It’s a dramatic building,” Chief Executive Peter Butterfield said of the planned headquarters. “We think it’s going to be one of the architectural standouts in the community.”
Plans call for a modern, angular campus of glass and steel, including a “floating bridge” linking two buildings.
An outside amphitheatre, cafe and fitness center also are planned.
The campus is set to mix Korean and American culture, according to Butterfield. The company is importing Korean pine trees for the project, he said.
|
|
Lobby of planned HQ, Hyundai-Kia design center in Irvine: whether Kia design shifts to new campus undecided, Butterfield says |
“Korean culture is a very, very determined culture from a business standpoint,” Butterfield said.
Kia did a national search for a headquarters site and narrowed it down to Irvine and three undisclosed spots.
The company opted to stay in Irvine because of its local workers, proximity to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and the importance of the Southern California market.
Kia has been in Orange County for about 15 years.
It’s one of several Asian automakers with U.S. bases in OC, including Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc., part of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp., and Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc., part of Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Co.
Hyundai Motor and other Hyundai units own a majority of Kia, which is run independently.
The two South Korean automakers do share a design center in Irvine.
A decision hasn’t been made whether the Kia part of the design facility will move to the new headquarters, according to Butterfield.
Other Kia units are set to move to the new building, including information technology and finance, which now operate on their own.
That stands to boost Kia’s headquarters workforce to 500 people, up from 300 now.
Beyond that, Kia said it doesn’t expect to add a lot of jobs right away with the new headquarters.
The automaker expects to keep growing here but described the building as more of a commitment to the U.S. market.
“Our cultural philosophy is to stay lean,” Butterfield said.
After struggling early on here, Kia has been growing U.S. sales.
In March, sales were up 8.2% to 25,722 autos, versus a year earlier.
For the first quarter, Kia’s sales were up 6.6% to 63,330 vehicles.
“One has to admit that they’ve shown a surprising ability to grow the brand,” said Paul Eisenstein, publisher of The Car Connection, a Detroit-based online industry publication.
But Kia still is a long way from gaining the kind of traction here that Japan’s big automakers have.
Toyota Motor Corp. sells about 300,000 vehicles a year here.
Kia, like Hyundai, is aiming to follow in the footsteps of the big Japanese automakers, Butterfield said.
The headquarters investment is part of that effort, he said.
The automaker plans to start construction this summer and complete it in late 2006, with Kia moving in shortly afterwards.
The Irvine office of New Jersey’s Studley Inc. represented Kia in the deal and is set to manage construction.
Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP designed the headquarters. The Irvine Co. signed off on the design “without any changes,” Butterfield said.
