Newport Beach-based Pacific Life Insurance Co., Orange County’s largest private company, plans to move as many as 1,000 workers to an eight-story office tower it is set to have built in Aliso Viejo by early 2008.
The life insurance company just signed a letter of intent to buy up to 5.5 acres of land at the Summit Office Campus, the 1 million-square-foot office campus off the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road.
The land could support a building as big as eight stories with 242,000 square feet of space, said Lee Redmond III, chief executive of Parker Properties LLC, developer of the Summit.
Aliso Viejo-based Parker Properties plans to develop the tower for Pacific Life, which would own the building.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The plan should be finalized in the next two months, according to Redmond. Construction could begin by the third quarter, he said.
The land already is zoned for office space.
The Aliso Viejo building would allow Pacific Life to shift some operations from elsewhere in the county and give it room to grow, spokesman Tennyson Oyler said.
The life insurer owns its corporate headquarters in Newport Center and leases space in another Newport Beach building.
Pacific Life has a third site in Foothill Ranch. The company also has a regional business center in Omaha, Neb.
The local leases expire in early 2008, which would coincide with planned completion of the Aliso Viejo building, Oyler said.
The company hasn’t determined what jobs will move to Aliso Viejo, Oyler said. Employees were told of the plan last week, he said.
Pacific Life is set to keep its headquarters in Newport Center, Oyler said.
The move could cover about half of Pacific Life’s local work force. The company, which had 2005 revenue of $4.8 billion, has about 2,150 workers in OC.
The company provides life insurance, annuities and pension plans. Pacific Life also has expanded into commercial jet leasing, mutual funds and other financial services.
Pacific Life is set to be the second build-to-suit project at the Summit for Parker Properties. The company built the headquarters of QLogic Corp. in 1999 (see page 1 story).
Most of the other buildings were put up on speculation without a specific tenant in mind.
