Rancho Santa Margarita-based Applied Medical Resources Corp., the county’s fourth-largest medical device maker by workers, is undertaking a big expansion.
A $45 million building and land deal in Irvine stands to more than double the local operations of Applied Medical, which makes heart, vascular and less invasive surgery products.
The company is buying a 244,000-square-foot industrial building and a 27,000-square-foot office building in the Irvine Spectrum, according to brokers involved in the deal.
Also included in the deal is 6.5 acres of empty land next to the two buildings. Applied Medical plans to build a third office or research and development building up to 125,000 square feet.
The industrial building also could be redeveloped to include research or office space, according to Tim Joyce, a broker with the Newport Beach-based office of Grubb & Ellis Co.
Keeping Rancho HQ
Applied Medical plans to keep its headquarters in Rancho Santa Margarita and use the Irvine buildings as a second campus, spokeswoman Mary Jo Stegwell said.
The company has about 250,000 square feet of space at four buildings in Rancho Santa Margarita.
Applied Medical is Rancho Santa Margarita’s largest employer with more than 760 local workers. The company employs nearly 1,000 people in all.
About half of those jobs have been added in the past 30 months as the company’s sales have jumped.
Sales for the 12 months through June were $103 million, up 40% from a year earlier.
The company makes all of its devices in OC, including catheters, clamps, stents and guidewires. It counts close to 500 pending or issued patents.
Chief Executive Said Hilal, a former executive at defunct American Hospital Supply Corp., runs Applied Medical.
Ongoing Expansion
The move marks the third straight year the company has expanded its operations.
In early 2005, Applied Medical added a building to headquarters and manufacturing facilities.
A year earlier, it bought its two-building headquarters complex and built a plant for making advanced plastics and metals.
Applied Medical bought the Irvine Spectrum real estate from Kilroy Realty Corp., a Los Angeles-based real estate investment trust.
Joyce and Oliver Fleener of Grubb & Ellis represented Kilroy. Kelly Nicholls and Kendra Van Note of Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial San Diego and Keith Kropfl of Travers Realty Inc. represented Applied Medical.
The Spectrum buildings originally were built for Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations, the U.S.-based arm of Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp. It was sold to Kilroy in late 1997. Mazda stayed at the campus until 2000 before moving elsewhere in the Spectrum.
More recently, Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc. had leased the complex, which now is empty.
The property “has always been seen as a corporate headquarters site,” Joyce said.
