Allergan Inc. has quietly bought office buildings and land around its Irvine campus in what looks like a bid to create a buffer from condominiums and apartments that are set to envelop much of the area around John Wayne Airport in the next decade.
The drug maker has bought three buildings near the backside of its sprawling Irvine campus just off Jamboree Road. In one case, a developer had planned to demolish offices and build 186 homes.
Now the office buildings are likely to stay under Allergan’s ownership.
The buys are the first example of a developer selling to one of the area’s longtime businesses rather than fight to push through homes over their objections, according to brokers.
Allergan didn’t comment on the buys.
In the first quarter, a real estate arm of Allergan bought two office buildings at 2400 and 2402 Michelson Drive, totaling about 70,000 square feet.
Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co., which has an Irvine office, sold the buildings. The 2400 Michelson building is home to medical device maker TherOx Inc.
Allergan also bought roughly four acres of Von Karman Avenue land with a small warehouse on it next to the acquired buildings on Michelson. San Jose-based contract electronics maker Sanmina-SCI Corp. sold the land. Sanmina used to make circuit boards at the site before moving operations to Costa Mesa a few years ago.
What Allergan paid for the buildings wasn’t disclosed.
Trammell Crow had sought to develop condos on the Michelson sites. Plans called for 186 homes in five-story buildings backing up to Allergan’s campus.
Irvine-based consultant Starpointe Ventures had worked to get Trammell Crow’s land zoned for homes and was hoping to get city approval for the project this quarter.
Allergan was set to oppose any housing bordering its campus, said Tim Strader Jr., president of Starpointe.
“It became clear that Allergan was going to fight the entitlement,” said Strader, who has worked with Lennar Corp., Opus West Corp. and Windstar Communities on getting approvals for homes around John Wayne Airport.
For more on this story, see the May 29 edition of the Business Journal.
