Allergan Inc., maker of Botox and other drugs, has filed plans with Irvine officials to build a 250,000-square-foot, four-story office tower at its campus near John Wayne Airport.
Allergan spokeswoman Caroline Van Hove confirmed last week that the drug maker’s board approved investing up to $95 million toward the construction of an office building nearly two years ago.
Van Hove declined to give any further details.
Allergan, which has annual sales of about $4 billion and a recent market value of $14 billion, said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last year that it expected “to incur design-related costs for this office building in 2008, followed by major construction activities beginning in 2009.”
A letter sent to the Irvine planning department by David Converse, Allergan’s development consultant, said the drug maker wants to “remove existing buildings” and add the new building, which it calls Tower III, on land at 18522 Von Karman Ave.
Allergan bought the Von Karman site, which totals almost 4 acres, in 2005 for $13 million or about $75 a square foot, from Sanmina-SCI Corp., a San Jose-based contract electronics maker. Sanmina used to make circuit boards at the site before moving its local operations to Costa Mesa a few years ago.
That purchase was the first of several land buys the drug maker has made in order to create a buffer zone for its campus against several proposed housing developments earlier this decade.
Allergan’s filing comes at a time when development has dramatically slowed in the 2,800-acre commercial area known as the Irvine Business Complex.
The project is being reviewed by Irvine planners. There is no timetable for the Planning Commission to make a decision, said Tim Gehrich, the city’s manager of planning and development services.
With Planning Commission approval, the drug maker can apply for grading and building permits.
City Council approval isn’t required, according to Gehrich.
The city said in a filing that if Allergan’s request is approved, the company would have to pay about $7.4 million in various fees at the time of building permit issuance.
If Allergan’s project is approved, it will be another heavy investment in its core plant. The company’s spent northward of $125 million on buildings on its campus during the past five years.
It added a $75 million, 175,000-square-foot research and development facility in 2004 and a $50 million lab in 2005.
Land Buying
On the land buying front, Allergan’s latest deal came in January, when it spent $15.3 million on a 67,000-square-foot, low-rise office building on Michelson Drive that holds the local offices of San Diego’s Roel Construction Co., Atlas Hospitality Group, a hotel consulting firm, and offices for Alliant International University.
Allergan is planning to keep the building as office space. Its previous owners had proposed tearing down the building and developing up to 208 condominiums and 220 hotel rooms in a high-rise tower, to Allergan’s irritation.
That plan was scrapped midyear 2008 as the real estate market continued to sour.
This year’s property buy wasn’t the first time Allergan, which has more than 2,000 local workers, has plunked down money to provide a buffer for its headquarters in the Irvine Business Complex.
Allergan bought two buildings at 2400 and 2402 Michelson Drive for $20 million in 2006 from Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co., part of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. Those buildings totaled about 70,000 square feet. The building at 2400 Michelson Drive once was home to TherOx Inc., a medical device maker.
The 2402 Michelson building houses Allergan Medical, the unit that’s responsible for the Juv & #233;derm lower-face skin wrinkle filler, the Lap-Band stomach banding device that is used to battle obesity and the Natrelle breast implant line.
Trammell Crow had sought to develop 186 condos in five-story buildings that backed up to Allergan’s campus.
Allergan was set to oppose any housing bordering its campus, said Tim Strader Jr., president of Irvine consultant Starpointe Ventures, in an earlier interview.
“It was 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 Irvine approvals for homes around John Wayne Airport.
Allergan moved to its Dupont Drive campus in the early 1970s from Santa Ana, after getting its start in the 1950s in Los Angeles County. At the time, the area was known as the University Industrial Park and had little development.
