A headquarters move by one of Orange County’s longtime commercial real estate brokerage houses to Irvine has put Cox Communications in the hunt for new offices for its advertising and marketing department.
Collins Commercial Corp., a 16-year-old commercial, industrial and investment brokerage firm, will move from Newport Beach in May into 10,855 square feet at 2391 Morse Ave. near the San Diego (405) Freeway.
Michael Collins, the company’s president, and developer Rusty Turner joined forces to buy the building along with another adjacent 17,290-square-foot office complex.
“I guess it’s kind of an interesting deal since a broker and a developer got together and bought an office,” said Collins with a laugh.
Originally, the brokerage was just looking for some extra space to expand. But Collins decided investing in both buildings would be a sound move given the strong commercial real estate market in Orange County.
“We didn’t need both buildings for ourselves, so I decided to bring in a partner,” he said. “Now, our task is to lease the adjacent building.”
Collins Commercial’s headquarters has been in Newport Beach for a decade. It started in Irvine, however, and the company’s lease with Koll is up about the time it moves next year.
“So it’s perfect timing for us,” said Collins. “And it gives us room to expand.”
Now with two other offices, one in Ontario and a third in South Bay by Los Angeles, the company hopes to almost double its brokerage staff and number of offices in the next few years.
While Collins Commercial is moving into Irvine, Cox Communications is vacating both buildings acquired by the brokerage firm and is expected to move to South Orange County.
Although the cable provider hasn’t said yet where it will go, real estate sources doubt it will be in the same building Cox occupies in Rancho Santa Margarita.
Word on the street is that Cox will move the 75-member ad and sales department now at 2381 Morse Ave. to the Irvine Spectrum.
The company had used the two buildings for larger divisions in the past, according to sources. But in recent years, it moved the present department into the facility, leaving large amounts of space unused.
Real estate observers familiar with the situation believe that Cox decided to unload the building to find one with less space and where its sales staff can work under one roof. n
