Irvine-based medical testing company US Labs Inc. says it plans to double its space in a cross-town move that stands to make way for up to 80 new workers in the next year and a half.
The company, a pathology lab for diagnostic testing and cancer screening that employs 110 people in Orange County, plans to move to a recently renovated, 52,000-square-feet building near John Wayne Airport in September. Brokers value the lease at about $8 million.
US Labs currently operates out of 20,000 square feet spread across several buildings in the Irvine Spectrum.
The move is designed to handle growth driven by genetic testing, according to US Labs Chief Executive Michael Danzi.
“From February to March we grew 38%,” Danzi said. “Our projections are to grow 10% a month. We tend to grow faster than that, but that’s what we’re hiring to.”
The move allows US Labs to consolidate operations at a lower lease rate, according to Danzi. The new site, near the San Diego (I-405) and Costa Mesa (55) freeways, also is easier on the company’s medical couriers, he said.
Industry sources place privately held US Labs’ yearly revenue at about $20 million. The company has another 40 employees at labs in Los Angeles and San Diego.
US Labs specializes in genomics, the medical applications of genetic research. The company is looking for specialized researchers, Danzi said.
“These are highly trained technical people doing advanced cancer diagnostics,” he said.
Danzi is a former president of BioTek Solutions Inc. in Santa Barbara, a testing and supplies company acquired by Tucson, Ariz.-based Ventana Medical Systems Inc. in 1996. He said he likes the current space US Labs has in the Spectrum but a move proved too compelling.
The new site, an old Irvine Business Complex industrial building at Campus Drive and Teller Avenue, is owned by Palo Alto-based Menlo Equities LLC and managed by the real estate firm’s Los Angeles office. Menlo is converting the single-story building for US Labs, according to brokers.
Real estate sources say the US Labs lease shows how landlords are courting companies in a cooling economy.
“Aggressive owners are courting tenants,” said John Griffin, a senior vice president at Voit Commercial Brokerage’s Irvine office, which represented Menlo. “They got in front of the tenant and made them feel comfortable.”
Staubach Co. principal Ken Ward and Bill Larkin, a Staubach vice president, represented US Labs.
Sources place current Spectrum rates for space suitable for US Labs at $1.85 per square foot. Rates were 90 cents when US Labs signed its lease in 1996, though sources say the company probably isn’t paying the market rate now.
The space US Labs is leaving, which is managed by Sares-Regis Group, isn’t leased yet, according to Danzi.
“The Spectrum did not have many single-story (buildings),” Danzi said. “We have a lot of plumbing and ventilation needs. Single story was very important to us.”
Another plus for US Labs, Danzi said, is that Menlo has other buildings in the area.
“The landlord has a lot of property there and the way we’re growing, we wanted to be able to move into it,” Danzi said. n
