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Appliance Maker in HQ, Showroom Shift

Huntington Beach-based upscale appliance maker BSH Home Appliances Corp. is moving its headquarters from Huntington Beach to Irvine and adding a showroom and training center near John Wayne Airport.

BSH, part of Germany’s BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausergerate GMBH, has leased 53,000 square feet of office space on Main Street near the airport.

The company plans to move its headquarters to the 172,000-square-foot 1901 Main St. building early next year.

“We are excited to be moving into a new, modern building in OC that better reflects our premium brands,” BSH spokeswoman Marni Hale said.

The company now is in an industrial building in Huntington Beach.

At 1901 Main, BSH is taking the fifth, sixth and portions of two other floors. The building is home to the local operations of Smith Barney, a venture of Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. with its name atop the building.

80% Full

Once BSH moves in, the building is set to be 80% full.

Terms of the lease weren’t disclosed. Monthly asking rents are about $2.16 per square foot, according to market tracker CoStar Group Inc.

The average monthly asking rent for the newest, best Irvine space was $2.32 per square foot in the first quarter, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield Inc.

Tom Overend of Huntington Beach-based Overend Co. represented BSH in the headquarters lease. John Harty and Michael Coppin of Voit Real Estate Services represented landlord Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc. of Georgia.

BSH’s new headquarters space is near another building it has leased for a showroom.

The company signed an eight-year lease for 17,000 square feet of office space on Von Karman Avenue.

BSH is set to occupy the ground floor of the Von Karman building and open a showroom.

A source close to the lease said BSH plans to relocate a Scottsdale showroom and training center to Irvine. The company declined to comment.

The Von Karman building is owned by GE Capital Real Estate’s Arden Realty Inc. Derrick DuBourdieu of Arden Realty and Greg Brown and David Dowd of Cushman & Wakefield represented the owner.

Overend represented BSH on the showroom.

Arden is making improvements to the 104,000-square-foot building, including a new façade, entrance, common areas and upgraded restrooms and corridors.

The upgrades are expected to start in the next two to three months, according to Arden Realty Senior Vice President Paul King.

BSH plans to move in early next year.

• Headquarters: Huntington Beach, moving to Irvine

• Products: high-end appliances

• Yearly sales: $775 million

• Parent: Germany’s BSH Bosch and und Siemens Hausergerate

• U.S. debut: 1991

• 1998: bought Huntington Beach’s Thermador

“This is one of Bosch’s few national showrooms, so it’s a showpiece for them, which fits in nicely with the amount of effort and money we’re going to sink into the building to reposition it,” King said.

BSH makes appliances sold under the Thermador, Bosch and Gaggenau brands in the U.S. It has yearly sales of about $775 million, or 6% of its parent company’s $13 billion in sales last year.

The company, whose parent is a venture of Germany’s Robert Bosch GMBH and Siemens AG, came to the U.S. in 1991.

BSH arrived in Orange County in 1998, when it bought Huntington Beach-based Thermador.

The move to Irvine gives BSH about 1,000 more square feet of headquarters space than it now has in Huntington Beach.

The move also provides the appliance maker newer space and avoids the expense of renovating its current facilities, according to a source familiar with the deal.

BSH has been stepping up its marketing.

Earlier this year, BSH’s Thermador brand unveiled a marketing campaign centered on an interactive website offering cooking demonstrations and product information.

Thermador

Thermador makes microwaves, cooking ranges, heating drawers and other appliances that sell for $799 to $12,000.

“We’re targeting an affluent customer,” Jonathan Brown of BSH’s advertising agency DGWB Advertising & Communications said in an earlier interview. “Certainly, these aren’t cheap products, but they are smart buys.”

Santa Ana-based DGWB created Thermador’s “Real innovations for real cooks” tagline and the company’s website.

Last month, BSH began working with cooking blogger Amy Winkelmann.

Winkelmann posts entries to the “Amy’s Kitchen Table Blog” about her experiences cooking with the company’s appliances in her home kitchen, which BSH furnished.

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