Deloitte LLP, the largest accounting firm in Orange County by employee count, has re-upped the lease on its local offices in Costa Mesa.
It recently completed a 54,886-square-foot lease at Park Tower, the 335,000-square-foot office building that bears the accounting firm’s name, across the street from the South Coast Plaza shopping center.
Park Tower is one of three high-rise office buildings owned by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and its affiliates, whose family-owned business also operates the shopping center. It’s also next to the performing arts complex that bears the family’s name.
The new lease is for three floors at the 17-story 695 Town Center Drive building and was among the largest office deals struck in the county in the past quarter.
Deloitte is occupying less space there; its prior lease, initiated about a decade ago, was closer to 100,000 square feet, according to Business Journal reports.
The new lease reflects a more efficient use of space, a trend in keeping with what other professional services firms are trying to achieve, according to brokers with the Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield who represent the building’s owners.
Deloitte reported employing 801 OC workers as of July, according to Business Journal records, up from about 750 in 2006, when the last lease was announced.
“Deloitte has been one of Park Tower’s, as well as the city of Costa Mesa’s, marquee tenants for a number of years, and we are delighted the company will be retaining its offices in our project for many more,” said Robert Lambert, a senior director with Cushman & Wakefield who worked with colleagues Rick Kaplan and Brian Booth on the deal.
Deloitte employs about 270 more people than the next largest accounting firm in OC, KMPG LLP, according to the Business Journal’s July listing of area accounting firms.
It has about 150 CPAs and 100 partners in its Costa Mesa offices.
Park Tower is also home to Vaca, a popular Spanish steakhouse and bar that opened in the past year.
Competition Rises
A strong local new-home market has brought plenty of builders to Orange County over the past year—perhaps too many, a recent report suggests.
OC showed the largest year-over-year growth in new-home developments out of the 33 largest U.S. markets for home sales, according to a recent report by Irvine-based John Burns Consulting.
Its count increased 31% year-over-year, according to the report. It was one of only five markets to show more than 20% growth, along with Sacramento, the East San Francisco Bay area, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
The 33 largest U.S. markets saw their counts increase 6% over the past year to 8,336 new-home developments, which represent about 40% of new-home sales in the country, the report said.
Much of the local growth is in more expensive homes, driven in large part by foreign buyers, the report notes.
“Orange County’s housing market has clearly become more competitive in the $1 million +/- price range in the (area’s) masterplans where much of the supply has been added,” according to John Burns Consulting’s Adam Artunian.
Market dynamics can change quickly as builders rely on an influx of foreign buyers to sell the expensive homes, the report said.
“Multiple times in the last year sales have surged and then slowed, and then surged again for reasons that have more to do with issues overseas than with Orange County’s local dynamics,” Artunian wrote.
Notable recent openings in the area include a new set of homes at Rancho Mission Viejo and at the Pacifica San Juan development in San Juan Capistrano. A new set of homes is scheduled to open at Great Park Neighborhoods early next year.
