Merrill Lynch Closing Newport Center Office
By RAJIV VYAS
Merrill Lynch & Co. is pulling out of Newport Center,the Wall Street of Orange County.
Merrill, OC’s largest stock brokerage, plans to move from its office at 800 Newport Center Drive by June. Twenty-five workers including 18 financial advisers are set to relocate to Merrill’s office at MacArthur Court in Newport Beach near the Irvine border.
The move appears to be a cost-cutting effort,Newport Center rents are the highest in the county. But Merrill spokesman Bill Haldin insisted the office merging has nothing to do with the company’s attempts to save money during tough times.
“This is not a part of the cost-cutting measures,” he said. “We had a sublease. It was expiring and we were not able to negotiate an extension. So we decided the best course of action would be to relocate our 25 employees there to our Newport Beach office, which is four miles away.”
Merrill has subleased 9,000 square feet at Newport Center. The sublease is up in June, and Merrill hopes to complete its move by then. The company opted not to seek new space in Newport Center, which has a 10% vacancy rate.
Merrill is not taking extra space at MacArthur Court, Haldin said.
“We occupy three floors in the MacArthur Court area, so we are able to accommodate these people there,” he said.
Nobody has been laid off from the Newport Center office, Haldin said.
MacArthur Court is Merrill’s largest OC office. The brokerage counts 175 workers there prior to the move. Some of Merrill’s top West Coast brokers and financial advisers work from MacArthur Court.
A renewal of the Newport Center sublease fell through because the original lease holder,an unnamed financial services company,wanted more rent, Haldin said.
“We learned last week that another tenant was coming in,” he said.
Merrill ranked No. 1 on the Business Journal’s Feb. 18 list of brokerages in OC. The New York-based company counts 450 local workers, down 9% from a year earlier.
Last year, Merrill combined its Irvine office with one in Costa Mesa and closed another in San Juan Capistrano.
