By JULIE ANNE INES
Celerity Inc., a maker of equipment used to make semiconductors, is set to close the doors of its Yorba Linda plant in early October and move operations to Allen, Texas.
The Milpitas-based company cited “the cost of doing business in Orange County” for the move, a spokeswoman in Yorba Linda said.
Celerity is in the final phase of closing down its 83,500-square-foot plant near the Riverside (91) Freeway, disassembling equipment bound for Texas.
Keeping Some R & D;
The company plans to keep a small research and development operation in OC employing about 40 people, the spokeswoman said. Celerity hasn’t decided where the local workers will be based.
The Yorba Linda plant was at peak employment of about 350 people, including temporary workers, earlier this year.
In March, Celerity said it planned to lay off 60 people in Yorba Linda and then moved on plans to close the site.
Celerity employs about 1,100 workers in all in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
About 45 of the Yorba Linda workers are set to move to Texas, the spokeswoman said. The operation there has openings for another 40 positions, according to Celerity’s Web site.
Celerity split off from Union City-based Kinetics Group Inc. a few years back. Private equity firm Texas Pacific Group bought Celerity in 2004.
The closure leaves a hole in Yorba Linda’s Savi Ranch industrial park, which once was touted as a technology hub for North County.
Demand for houses and shopping centers around Savi Ranch have crimped its growth as a tech hub.
Other tech manufacturers have looked at the Celerity building, according to Ben Seybold, a CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. broker who represents landlord Spiegel Enterprises, a private investor in Los Angeles.
The site is competing for tenants with empty buildings nearby in Anaheim’s industrial corridor along La Palma Avenue and in Corona just a few miles to the east.
The labs and research space at Celerity’s buildings are hard to reproduce, Seybold said. The site has clean rooms and office space, he said.
“Go find (a research and development) facility in Corona with more than 80,000 square feet,” he said.
Selling Location
The plant’s location in OC,at the gateway to the Inland Empire,is part of its selling point, according to Seybold.
The site is near upscale housing in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills as well as skilled workers in Riverside County, Seybold said.
While much of the area around Savi Ranch has given way to homes and shops, there’s a “very low probability” the Celerity plant would be redeveloped, Seybold said.
The plant at 22600 Savi Ranch Parkway is tucked in amid other industrial buildings.
The site dates back to Unit Instruments Inc., an OC maker of chip production gear that was bought by Kinetics in 1999. Unit Instruments started in Orange and later moved to Yorba Linda.
