Irvine Company has landed a startup financial technology company with a brand-name backer as the first tenant at a pair of buildings the landlord is putting up at its Sand Canyon Business Center office campus.
The Newport Beach-based real estate owner and developer said this month that it signed AutoGravity—a technology company that provides financing information to car shoppers and connects them to car lenders—to take space at the 15495 Sand Canyon Ave. building that’s under construction at the Irvine Spectrum-area campus.
AutoGravity’s founder and chief executive, Andy Hinrichs, is a former executive at Daimler Financial Services, the global financial services provider of Germany’s Daimler AG, maker of Mercedez-Benz and other vehicles.
Daimler’s latest annual report listed AutoGravity, which launched last year, as its fully owned subsidiary. Its financial investment in the company hasn’t been disclosed; venture capital trade publications estimate that Daimler has invested more than $20 million in the Irvine-based company.
AutoGravity will be leasing 27,170 square feet at the building, according to data from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. It’s one of the largest new office leases in South Orange County in the past quarter.
The lease represents more than a doubling of space for AutoGravity, which currently is operating out of the Discovery Business Center, another Irvine Co.-owned office campus about half a mile away from the new location.
The move to larger offices comes as the company is bringing its main product to market. AutoGravity last month launched a smartphone app for Apple products that lets customers select any car, apply for financing online, and receive multiple personalized finance offers, among other services.
An Android-version app is scheduled to be launched soon.
The company’s technology is designed to improve “the car financing experience by empowering customers with the full potential of smartphone technology,” Hinrichs said in a statement.
The app allows customers to take advantage of in-phone GPS, camera-based optical character recognition, fingerprint log-in and other mobile technology, according to AutoGravity.
The company’s smartphone technology also aims to give lenders that use its platform increased access to customers, particularly millennials.
AutoGravity also is designed to drive more traffic to dealers’ showrooms, produce qualified leads, and boost overall customer satisfaction, according to the company.
Open Next Year
AutoGravity will be moving into the four-story office at 15495 Sand Canyon Ave. next year.
The building and a sister office that’s going up at 15485 Sand Canyon each hold about 106,000 square feet. They are scheduled to open around March, according to Irvine Co.’s website.
The offices are next to Irvine Co.’s five existing buildings at Sand Canyon Business Center that total about 454,000 square feet.
The existing buildings were once entirely leased to Verizon Wireless. Portions of the campus have been turned into multitenant buildings in recent years following downsizing moves by the telecom company.
The two new offices are what the landlord calls “Next Gen Campus” offices, featuring floor-to-ceiling glass and aluminum curtain walls that will allow for lots of natural light and energy efficiency, among other design features.
Amenities will include fitness and wellness centers, bike-sharing programs, outdoor workspaces, and sundecks, according to Irvine Co.
The new headquarters “puts us at the heart of the California tech cluster, helping us accelerate our growth by attracting the best talent to join us in our mission to bring auto financing back down to earth,” Hinrichs said.
The Sand Canyon buildings are among six new low- and midrise offices Irvine Co. is building in the Spectrum that feature its “Next Gen” designs.
A few blocks away at Discovery Business Center, the company’s adding four three-story buildings totaling 317,000 square feet.
It also has a 21-story office tower being built about a mile away, closer to the Spectrum shopping center.
The company’s current spate of office development in the Spectrum area totals about 955,000 square feet—not counting the 200 Spectrum tower that opened in March and is still being leased out.
Irvine Co. said that demand in the area supports its recent development push. Its established buildings there are 97% occupied, while the 21-story 200 Spectrum building—Orange County’s tallest office—is already more than 60% leased.
The office market in the Irvine Spectrum runs about 11.2 million square feet, with a vacancy rate of 5.7% at the end of last month, according to data from CBRE Group Inc.
That’s the lowest vacancy rate for any major office market in OC—a region with an average vacancy rate of 10%—according to the brokerage’s latest quarterly report.
Monthly rents in the area now run about $2.64 per square foot, compared to $2.51 per square foot in OC as a whole, according to CBRE’s data.
