Insurer Balboa Life & Casualty plans to move from its Teller Avenue site in Irvine across the street to larger quarters in the Park Place Office Campus, where it plans to expand from 350 to about 500 workers.
Balboa has agreed to an 11-year, five-month lease for about 109,000 square feet at Park Place, according to a company spokeswoman. The company has outgrown its current 87,000-square-foot building next to the Citicorp tower near John Wayne Airport, she said.
Some Balboa employees already are working in temporary spaces at Park Place, while the company makes upgrades to the two buildings it plans to occupy early next year. Balboa expects to take 103,000 square feet in the Park Place’s 3349 building and another 5,300 square feet in the 3337 building, a single-story, 240,000-square-foot structure.
A unit of Calabasas-based Countrywide Credit Industries Inc., Balboa provides insurance to financial companies and their customers. Other companies under the Balboa umbrella are Balboa Insurance, Balboa Life Insurance, Balboa Life of New York, Meritplan Insurance and Newport Insurance. Those Balboa entities provide coverage to financial institutions throughout the U.S.
Financial terms of the Park Place lease weren’t disclosed. But the monthly asking price was $2.25 per square foot at the 3349 building and $1.65 at the 3337 building, according to Carol Glasow, property manager at Winthrop Management, which handles Park Place.
Winthrop West Coast Realty represented Park Place while Steve Card with Travers Realty represented Balboa in the deal.
The additional space at Park Place gives Balboa the potential to increase its OC staff by about 40%, a spokeswoman said. If hiring goes beyond the projected 500, Balboa could place workers at its Simi Valley offices, she said.
The move helps fill out the eight-building, 1.8 million-square-foot Park Place,the former Fluor Corp. headquarters at the San Diego (405) Freeway and Jamboree Road.
Fluor began developing the office park in 1981 and sold it in 1985 to an affiliate of Winthrop Management. Jamboree LLC now owns the property.
The deal with Balboa and another with Samsung Electronics Co., the South Korean maker of everything from TVs to microwave ovens, brings Park Place to 95% leased, according to Glasow.
Samsung signed a five-year deal for 42,500 square feet, with the potential to add another 8,500 square feet. The monthly asking price was $2.25 a square foot for the Samsung space. Dave Desper of CB Richard Ellis represented Samsung.
Balboa and Samsung join ConAgra Grocery Products, Caltrans, IT Corp., and Washington Mutual Inc. among the tenants at Park Place. n
