Irvine’s Pathway Capital Management LLC, an investment manager with a multibillion-dollar portfolio and big-name clients, is moving to an office tower going up near John Wayne Airport.
The company plans to lease 37,250 square feet, or about two floors, at 2211 Michelson, the 265,000-square-foot office tower being built by Houston-based Hines Interests LP and Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. of Fort Worth, Texas.
It’s is nearly double the space Pathway has been taking nearby at Jamboree Center’s 5 Park Plaza building, also in Irvine. The lease is for 10 years. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
The deal is the first for any of the six office towers being built in Irvine since construction started on the buildings a year ago.
One of the developers, Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc., leased about 270,000 square feet of space at its 3161 Michelson tower before starting construction.
2006 saw no leases, prompting some to wonder about demand for all the new office space.
Landing 2211 Michelson’s first tenant “is a milestone moment,” said Doug Holte, director of Hines’ Orange County and San Diego operations.
The company plans to finalize more leases in the next month or two, he said.
The move should allow Pathway to grow. The company now counts about 70 employees, including 12 principals and more than 35 investment professionals.
Pathway, which gets money from institutional investors and then decides what private equity funds to invest in, also has offices in Rhode Island and London.
The company carries weight in the investing world. It has more than 450 private equity investments, representing more than $29 billion, according to its Web site.
Pathway manages funds for more than 30 institutional clients, including global corporations, financial institutions and governments.
Principals Douglas Le Bon, James Reinhardt, Karen Jakobi and Albert Clerc worked together at Santa Monica-based investment firm Wilshire Associates Inc. before starting Pathway in 1991.
Since then, Pathway has added eight other principals. The 12 principals own the company.
Landing the investment manager is a coup for Hines, which hopes to lure other financial companies as well as law firms to 2211 Michelson.
It is expected Hines and other landlords of new office towers will charge monthly rents in the $3.50 per square foot range or higher, to cover construction costs.
At 5 Park Plaza, landlord The Irvine Company is marketing Pathway’s old space at $3.25 per square foot.
The 2211 Michelson tower started in early 2006, along with competing area projects by Maguire, Phoenix-based Opus West Corp. and a trio of towers by the Irvine Co.
The Hines tower has been certified for environmentally friendly design. The green design helped pique Pathway’s interest, Holte said. Hines began courting Pathway nearly a year ago, he said.
Howard Floom of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s Anaheim office represented Pathway in the lease. David Whitney of the Newport Beach-based office of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. and Robert Thagard of Orion Property Partners’ Costa Mesa office represented Hines and Crescent.
