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 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 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.
For more on this story, see the June 15 edition of the Business Journal.
