Few would confuse Santa Ana’s Xerox Centre office building with Le Louvre.
But the 15-story tower can claim to share one thing in common with the Paris museum. Both have ancient Egyptian artifacts on display.
Newport Beach-based WCB Properties LP, Xerox Centre’s landlord, arranged a deal with Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum of Cultural Art to showcase current museum displays at the building.
Bowers officials thought it was a good way to gain publicity for the nearby museum, which is featuring a big collection of Egyptian mummies and coffins on loan from the British Museum.
WCB, meanwhile, thought the display would be fun for tenants. The effort is part of the company’s bid to restore some luster to Santa Ana’s premier office building, which WCB bought in January for $77.5 million.
The exhibit also is the latest example of area landlords trying new ways to attract tenants and keep current ones happy amid a building boom that stands to bring about several office towers starting next year.
Some of the changes going on are more cosmetic.
Chicago-based Equity Office Properties Trust, which owns several Orange County buildings, is doing an $850,000 refurbishment of its 230,700-square-foot Tower 17 in Irvine.
The 19-year-old building is getting spruced up inside and out with landscaping, parking structure upgrades and a new awning.
“We wanted to highlight some of the more unique portions of the property,” said Frank Campbell, vice president of leasing for Equity Office.
The renovations should be done by next month, he said.
Tower 17 on Von Karman Avenue near John Wayne Airport is 88% full. The building has smaller floors than other towers in the area and draws smaller tenants looking to lease an entire floor, Campbell said.
At first blush, it seems odd to see landlords pampering tenants with art and upgrades. After all, the county is in the midst of a big-time landlord’s market.
Rents for top office space in OC are rising and now stand at an average monthly rate of $2.71 per square foot, according to Grubb & Ellis Co. Vacancies are near historic lows.
When the county’s largest landlord, The Irvine Company, spent close to $45 million a few years ago to upgrade 75 office buildings, roles were reversed. Back then tenants had the upper hand during a big lull for the office market.
Acting now has its benefits, said Terry Thompson, WCB’s vice president of acquisitions.
“Whether the market is up or down, there are always things that you can do,” he said.
Since taking over Xerox Centre and hiring the Irvine office of Houston-based PM Realty Group as the building’s manager, WCB has seen rents go up 15%, to $2.60 per square foot.
Occupancy at the 321,000-square-foot building has jumped from 82% to 96%.
New tenants include Kaiser Permanente, which leased 16,853 square feet in a 10-year deal, and law firm Green & Hall, which has 18,000 square feet for at least eight years.
Sprucing up buildings also helps keep tenants, according to real estate brokers.
With 160 floors of high-rise office space due to come available in the next few years, landlords at older buildings may need to work harder to keep tenants, they said.
