A unit of Orange-based Ameriquest Capital Corp. is set to take 90,000 square feet in Irvine in one of the larger office leases of the year.
Olympus Mortgage Co. is leasing several floors at 2600 Michelson Drive near John Wayne Airport in an expansion and relocation from Orange, sources said.
Ameriquest has become one of the largest renters of office space in the county, leasing nearly 1 million square feet in Orange, Anaheim and Irvine, sources said. The company employs about 3,000 workers here.
The company’s retail arm, Ameriquest Mortgage Co., signed one of the largest office leases last year, taking 130,000 square feet at Arena Corporate Center in Anaheim. That followed a big 2002 deal when Ameriquest took 139,000 square feet near the Block at Orange.
Olympus Mortgage is a wholesaler lender, funding loans initiated by brokers. Ameriquest Mortgage deals directly with consumers. Another Ameriquest Capital unit, Argent, also deals with brokers.
The companies are owned by mortgage magnate and big political donor Roland Arnall.
Officials with Ameriquest didn’t return calls. Equity Office Properties Trust, which owns 2600 Michelson, declined to comment.
Fueled by low interest rates and rising home values, the subprime industry has ballooned during the past three years. Subprime lenders make loans to people with imperfect credit. Borrowers typically swap expensive credit card debt for a refinanced home loan or second mortgage.
Ameriquest has risen to the top of a hot industry. The company has employed an aggressive advertising campaign and opened some 300 retail branches nationwide.
The mortgage lender made $12.5 billion in loans in the second quarter, more than any other subprime lender, according to National Mortgage News.
This year the company has expanded into more traditional lending and has invested heavily in a sports marketing campaign.
Last year the company leased all of 1600 Douglas Drive in Anaheim for an operations center, said Adam Bass, senior executive vice president with the company, in a past interview. Some 400 workers, including new hires and transfers, were set to occupy the building, he said.
It’s unclear how many workers Olympus Mortgage will employ at 2600 Michelson.
Olympus now is housed at Ameriquest’s headquarters at 1100 Town and Country Road in Orange. Ameriquest is said to take up a big chunk of the building’s 366,000 square feet.
Other subprime lenders have snatched up office space in the county as Americans have expanded their appetite for debt. Indeed, five of the top 10 subprime lenders are based here.
The other top players include Irvine’s New Century Financial Corp.; Washington Mutual Inc.’s Anaheim-based Long Beach Mortgage Co.; Irvine-based Option One Mortgage Corp., a unit of H & R; Block Inc; and Fremont Investment & Loan in Anaheim, part of Santa Monica’s Fremont General Corp.
The Olympus deal is the third-largest mortgage lease this year. Home Loan Center Inc. took 151,000 square feet in Irvine, and Fremont signed for 105,000 square feet in Brea.
And New Century is said to be near a major lease deal with Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc. for space at Park Place in Irvine, sources said.
New Century was the nation’s second biggest subprime lender in the country in the second quarter, funding $12.3 billion in loans.
The company, which recently became a real estate investment trust, last month signed a letter of intent to lease 480,000 square feet of space at Park Place, just a few blocks from its current headquarters, according to sources.
The deal could include the building of a 20-story office tower, with New Century taking about half of it, they said.
Park Place is a sprawling 105-acre complex at the corner of Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive near John Wayne Airport.
New Century plans to consolidate many of its 1,700 workers here in one spot. The company now leases more than 300,000 square feet in different OC buildings, including its headquarters at 18400 Von Karman Ave.
Brokers said there’s no indication that Ameriquest will follow a similar pattern and consolidate its workers in one big office campus. The company may prefer to keep its subsidiaries separate, sources said.
One potential pitfall for the office market: The rapid growth of mortgage companies could come to a halt, according to Tom Murphy, vice president and leasing director with Jones Lang LaSalle in Irvine.
But Murphy said the impact on the office market is sure to be offset by the improving economy and limited construction of new office buildings.
“I don’t think you are going to see a significant amount of new office properties built over the next 24 to 36 months,” he said.
Brokers have said mortgage companies occupy a maximum of 5% of space in the county. If they give back space gradually as interest rates rise, it shouldn’t be catastrophic, they said.
Olympus Mortgage is set to take space vacated by another mortgage company, now defunct Instafi.com.
Instafi.com was a highflying start up that generated quick cash during the boom days of home loan refinancing but imploded shortly after the refinance market cooled last year.
Ameriquest is seen as a much larger, more diverse and better-funded company.
