FCB Southern California, Orange County’s second-largest advertising agency, will merge its two OC offices into a larger Irvine location by April 1.
The company, with $450 million in annual capitalized billings, signed a 15-year lease for a 100,000-square-foot building at 17600 Gillette Ave. formerly occupied by Sorin Biomedical Inc. The lease is valued at more than $36 million.
The building, which brings four FCB divisions under one roof, will take the place of FCB’s current 5,000-square-foot Newport Beach office and its 60,000-square-foot headquarters in Costa Mesa.
“We’re building the space in anticipation for growth,” said Jim Harrington, president of FCB Southern California.
FCB Southern California employs 350 people, many of whom divide their time between the OC offices and an 85-person Los Angeles office on Wilshire Boulevard. On March 1, the LA office will move to a bigger, 30,000-square-foot location on El Segundo Boulevard.
Anticipated growth is tied to FCB’s recent win of the entire $206 million account with Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp., and the expansion of the Hilton Hotels Corp. account, which went from $35 million to $70 million in annual billings.
The consolidation of FCB’s OC offices comes about a year after True North Communications Inc., parent to FCB and Bozell Worldwide, merged its local Bozell office with the Costa Mesa FCB office.
FCB hired architect Clive Wilkinson, who designed TBWA/Chiat/Day’s LA office space, to bring a creative edge to the new Irvine digs. The building will see new life nearly a year after being left vacant by former tenant Sorin, which moved its 250-person operation to Colorado late last year. n
