Jim Glidewell, founder and president of dental products maker Glidewell Laboratories Inc., has bought a 74,000-square-foot office building in Irvine that eventually could be part of a corporate campus.
Glidewell paid $21.5 million, or $290 per square foot, according to real estate sources.
The building, called Von Karman Corporate Plaza, is at 18551 Von Karman Ave. near Michelson Drive and the San Diego (I-405) Freeway.
The building is 67% full after LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.’s LandAmerica Lawyers Title Co. unit moved out in December.
Tenants include CPS Insurance Services, RGL Insurance, Aktino Inc., a venture capital-backed maker of telecommunications gear, and Pardue, Cornwell & Associates, an engineering firm.
Glidewell Laboratories plans to take up the rest of the space.
Jim Glidewell owns a pair of buildings next to Von Karman Corporate Plaza.
One FedEx Corp. leases as a drop-off and sorting center. The other houses another of Glidewell’s businesses, BDL Prosthetics, a maker of crowns, bridges and dental restoration projects. BDL used to be known as BioTemps.
Glidewell was interested in Von Karman Corporate “because he can combine all three buildings and make a big campus eventually,” said Mike Meisenbach of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services Inc.’s Newport Beach office.
“It’s a good real estate investment,” he said.
Meisenbach and colleague John Collins represented the seller, Foster City-based Legacy Partners Inc.
Glidewell, who declined an interview through a spokesman, represented himself.
Von Karman Corporate also appealed to Glidewell because he didn’t need a lot of space in the building,roughly 20,000 square feet was available, Meisenbach said.
There were multiple offers for Von Karman Corporate, mainly from institutional bidders, Meisenbach told real estate news site GlobeSt.com.
For the most part, Glidewell stays clear of the media.
He started Glidewell Laboratories in 1970 after attending a two-year dental technology program at Orange Coast College. In the company’s 37 years, it’s gone from $39,000 in yearly sales to an estimated $100 million and 1,400 employees companywide.
Glidewell’s also a philanthropist and a real estate investor.
In 2002, he paid $8 million for the building that FedEx leases.
Real estate sources said Glidewell had expressed interest in buying the former Valeant Pharmaceuticals International corporate headquarters in Costa Mesa but wasn’t able to come to terms with Valeant.
Valeant, shortly after moving to Aliso Viejo, sold its Costa Mesa building for $38 million to Boston-based investment adviser AEW Capital Management LP and Irvine’s Cor Realty Advisors.
Von Karman Corporate, which was built 23 years ago, just underwent a renovation that included common area upgrades, landscaping and a new roof.
Meisenbach and colleague Brian Garbutt also handled the 2005 sale of Von Karman Corporate and a larger building, Alton Corporate Plaza, to Legacy from Adler Realty Investments of Woodland Hills for $46 million.
