Blizzard Entertainment Inc. still is in growth mode when it comes to its local real estate presence. It appears it’s also still very much a renter rather than an owner.
Blizzard, the largest software company based in Orange County with an estimated 2,000 employees here, leases nearly 450,000 square feet at its Irvine Spectrum headquarters and adjoining buildings near the intersection of Alton Parkway and Laguna Canyon Road.
Irvine Company owns the game maker’s main, three-building, 235,000-square-foot Alton Corporate Center campus, and Blizzard also leases space in several buildings across the street at the Irvine Oaks office campus owned by Newport Beach-based Olen Properties Corp.
An announcement this month by the Irvine office of brokerage Lee & Associates said that the company is expanding into another sizeable building on the other side of the Spectrum. The online gaming company recently leased all of 15253 Bake Parkway, a 65,000-square-foot office about three miles from its main campus, according to the brokerage. The location is near the intersection of Bake and Barranca parkways east of the Santa Ana (5) Freeway.
It’s the first significant office in Irvine Blizzard is known to have occupied that’s not at or next to its main Irvine campus.
The office is owned by IS Equities and was occupied until a few years ago by DaVita Healthcare, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
The new lease comes a few months after real estate sources said Blizzard—whose “World of Warcraft” series has made it the world’s largest online game maker—walked away from a potential office buy near its main campus. In October I wrote on speculation that it was looking to buy 16355 Laguna Canyon Road, a three-story office owned by Chapman University.
Chapman affiliate Brandman University occupies the 115,000-square-foot building but wanted to sell the office in order to finance the buy of a larger office in the Spectrum at 7755 Irvine Center Drive.
After Blizzard and Chapman weren’t able to come to terms on a sale, the university gave up its pursuit of the building, real estate sources tell the Business Journal.
The five-story office building, which Mazda North American Operations plans to vacate this summer, was sold last month for about $42 million to Irvine-based ThreeSixty Group, a toy and gadget designer and distributor.
Thousand Oaks Offering
Irvine-based Sares-Regis Group has kicked off work on an industrial development in the Ventura County city of Thousand Oaks.
The developer, which specializes in industrial and multifamily projects, said it’s working with an undisclosed institutional investor to build a nine-building industrial project of about 508,000 square feet.
It bought the 29 acres for it early this year, according to local news reports.
The development site is part of the Conejo Spectrum Business Park, just off the Ventura (101) Freeway at Rancho Conejo Boulevard.
It’s the first major industrial development in the Thousand Oaks’ Conejo Spectrum submarket in over a decade, according to Sares-Regis.
Buildings at the project will range in size from about 37,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet, and the first completions are scheduled to take place before the end of the year. The developer said it’s in talks with several local firms about leasing space. The area’s industrial market is nearly fully occupied.
New Land Advisors President
Irvine-based land brokerage Land Advisors Organization has named a new president of its California operations.
David Kidder will run its core brokerage operations in the state and help expand its affiliated companies in the region.
He currently serves as president for one of the affiliated companies: Landmark Capital, which helps developers and homebuilders line up financing and private equity for residential and commercial real estate projects.
Kidder will retain his role as president of Landmark Capital to further integrate and grow the affiliated companies, Land Advisors said.
