Fast Lane: Ford’s Projected Job Count
at 900 and Rising
Ford Motor’s move into Orange County will be bigger than previously estimated. The latest reckoning is that there will be 900 company and associated jobs, with 1,000 easily in sight. Lincoln Mercury already has about 150 global HQ, marketing, sales and support jobs in Irvine, and ad agency Young & Rubicam has another nearly 300 jobs here devoted to Ford. Now Ford is consolidating the rest of the North American operations of its Premier Automotive Group into Irvine. The relocation and hiring estimates for this phase are 150 for Volvo, 50 to 75 for Jaguar, a “guesstimated” 50 to 75 for Land Rover, and “a handful” of jobs for Aston Martin and PAG itself. Figure PAG will need a ballpark 170 agency people, too. The estimated total of 400 to 450-plus Lincoln Mercury and PAG workers will go into a five-story, 300,000-square-foot HQ under construction in the Spectrum. The facility is designed for 750 to 800 employees, but the extra space may not last long: The building will include a studio, which means presumably that designers and engineers are also on the way. Back in May, Lincoln Mercury boss Mark Hutchins was quoted as saying he’d like to move 800 designers and engineers from Dearborn, Mich., to Irvine by 2006 … You’ve read about them frequently in the OCBJ. Now the world is discovering “Tech Coast” and its poster boy, Henry “Nick” Nicholas. CNBC’s “Power Lunch” spent last week traveling the Southern California coast, with live shows each day including a Friday finale at Pelican Hill Golf Club. It’s the fifth road trip for the program, which has also toured the Midwest, the East Coast, Texas and the Bay Area. “From Santa Barbara to San Diego and everywhere in between, the area economy is stronger than ever,” said a promo piece. Broadcom’s Nicholas was one of six on the interview list. A week earlier, CNN’s “Moneyline” did an extended piece on Nick, who pumped iron for the camera. The media have also descended on Nicholas’ expanding Nellie Gail Ranch estate, the subject of neighborhood unrest. And Nick was set to speak this past weekend to about 100 journalists from around the country gathered for a technology conference of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers at the Irvine Hyatt Regency. OC is even the backdrop for a world premier play, “Everett Beekin,” (by New Yorker Richard Greenberg) currently showing at South Coast Repertory. Wouldn’t you know it? Nick was in the opening-night audience.
