OC’s Commercial Spaces Range From High-Rises to Campuses to Restored Classics
Orange County should have a lot of happy office tenants. Of course, the economy’s great, and so is our quality of life. But another big reason may be overlooked: The office building boom has resulted in the creation of varying styles of workplace environments that are right for everyone. And if we look closely we can see that this wide offering of office buildings and styles reflects the changing nature of the Orange County business community,old economy or new.
Companies here can choose their settings. No one has to settle for any style or location that’s unsuitable. Part of the reason for this goes to the general uplift in physical appearances and infrastructure that’s occurred everywhere. It’s also made once less-desirable office buildings more than decent places in which to work. And as technology improves, any office building can be refitted to become state-of-the-art.
Another reason for the widening choices is the campus-style product that’s becoming so abundant in South Orange County. So much is being built in this category that it’s added a huge new dimension to the Orange County office scene. This new dimension has helped tenants easily differentiate between the new and existing office styles in every submarket in the county.
City officials should be happy, too. Older communities are seeing downtowns revitalized. New communities are seeing downtowns created.
The only missing ingredient with this new style of speculative office product is the absence of any truly distinctive architecture. There are a couple of exceptions, but generally the emphasis of speculative office is centered on functionality. After all, that’s what tenants are telling developers they want. And that’s where developers are putting their money.
Tenants largely are saying they want workspaces on one level. They don’t want to be forced to ride elevators between work groups. They want big floorplates. This saves on office systems, too. This horizontal orientation enhances operational efficiency, they say.
One of the newest examples of this is Stadium Gateway, a six-story project at Edison Field in Anaheim. Stadium Gateway is slated for August completion by Summit Commercial/Highridge Partners and Mack-Cali Realty. Here’s a project with giant 44,000-square-foot floorplates that, with the addition of some interior hallways, can be reduced to produce spaces as small as 1,000 square feet.
“It’s always a challenge to make a big floorplate that will divide down in case a tenant wants to contract,” said Jack Mahoney, Summit’s president.
“We’ve spent a lot of energy designing about as efficient a floorplate as you can get. And for a full-floor user, it gives them rentable space that’s about 92% efficient as opposed to the 87% industry average,” he said.
Stadium Gateway has great freeway and multi-modal access. It’s adjacent to The Sun Theater, the planned Gotcha Glacier and the Arrowhead Pond and is in walking distance of the stadium at Edison Field. These venues combine to create an active, if not stellar, location.
Tenants also want amenities for their employees. This means open space between buildings, basketball courts, fitness centers, restaurants and dry cleaners because many believe an employee-friendly environment will aid in employee retention.
The bottom line is they want to keep their employees and keep an eye on them, too.
It’s a sign of the changing nature of the Orange County business community. If you’re not a new-economy company, you want to be close to those that are. The new South County city of Aliso Viejo, for example, is built on that theme. New, low-rise office buildings that are attractive to many tech-related companies are scattered throughout the city. Many of the tenants started out in garden-style office buildings, making the move to this newer product less of an adjustment.
The problem for Aliso Viejo, however, has been the lack of an identifiable city center.
But this is changing. Shea Development recently unveiled plans for an office project it calls Vantis in Aliso Viejo. It’s a 1.5-million square-foot office project of nine buildings of three, five or eight stories. The buildings have 30,000-square-foot to 35,000-square-foot floorplates. The five- and eight-story buildings certainly will give this new city the skyline it needs to draw attention to its town center.
Architect Jeff Larsen, senior associate partner with McLarand Vasquez and Emsiek of Irvine, who worked on the Vantis project, says developers are reluctant to produce buildings taller than five stories, the point at which costly seismic and life-safety issues kick in.
“When we talk to developers about a new project, it seems every conversation starts with ‘OK, we need a $65-per-square-foot building.’ They’re conservative about their approach to architecture. They’re just very tenant-oriented,” he said.
“Cities want to upgrade and attract people and tall buildings will do that. It has to be in the right place and location,” Larsen said.
Santa Ana has several tall buildings downtown not far from where it’s undergoing a sort of renaissance with the Artists Village. But its Class A office market still could use a boost.
That’s why city officials are hoping developer Mike Harrah, president of Caribou Industries, will succeed with his plan to build a 37-story tower called One Broadway. The draft environmental impact report for the project is due out shortly after the first of the year.
The upper floors of this proposed 600,000-square-foot high-rise,almost twice as tall as any in Orange County, yet about half as tall as the 73-story Library Tower (formerly First Interstate) in downtown Los Angeles,will offer sweeping views of the Orange County coastline. More importantly for Santa Ana, it will be an exclamation point on an otherwise remarkable urban resurrection. It would give Santa Ana a spire that will be seen for miles.
One Broadway’s planned 16,000-square-foot floorplates, small in comparison to most new low- and mid-rise buildings, may prove too constraining to many companies. But some executives nevertheless would undoubtedly covet the signage opportunity.
If a contemporary mid-rise building or a high-rise tower doesn’t suit your company, there are plenty of options for the company seeking to set itself apart.
Advertising agency DGWB recently did just that. The 13-year-old agency recently said goodbye to its longtime Irvine location and moved its 110-employee workforce to the old Santa Ana city hall building at Main and Third streets,proof that once-great local buildings can be made useful again.
Mike Weisman, DGWB’s president, said he and his two partners invested $4.5 million in the purchase and renovation of this elegant, 47,000-square-foot Egyptian deco building built in 1935.
“Our employees love it and our clients love it, too,” says Weisman.
“We’re confronted by diversity in Santa Ana, which is important for a creative business. We walk out of the building for lunch at restaurants or vendor carts. Every window in the building opens,” he said.
“Many of our employees commute stress-free by train from South County, San Diego and Los Angeles,” he said. “That’s another benefit of city living you don’t get in a perfectly planned environment. I’m sure it’s not for everybody, but it’s working great for us.” n
Barrett is editor of Tustin-based Martin Brower’s Orange County Report.
