Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc. plans to spend $70 million to build a landmark headquarters for 500 local workers plus room to grow.
The automaker, the U.S. arm of South Korea’s Kia Motors Corp., paid $28 million to The Irvine Company for 21.7 acres of land near the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway and the Eastern (261) Toll Road.
Kia plans to spend another $40 million building a 236,000-square-foot campus at the Jamboree Business Center East.
The company now rents a 153,000-square-foot building at 9801 Muirlands Blvd. in Irvine.
“It’s a dramatic building,” Chief Executive Peter Butterfield said of the planned headquarters. “We think it’s going to be one of the architectural standouts in the community.”
Plans call for a modern, angular campus of glass and steel, including a “floating bridge” linking two buildings.
An outside amphitheatre, cafe and fitness center also are planned.
For more on this story, see the April 4 print edition of the Orange County Business Journal.
