Premier Business Centers would like you to know they’re not your father’s executive suite operator anymore.
The Irvine-based provider of shared office spaces for smaller businesses, which has a big presence in Orange County, is aiming to keep up with the fast-changing and fast-growing world of coworking through a corporate rebranding.
It has a new name—Premier Workspaces—and a new website.
The changes signal a shift from its executive suites concept launched in 2002, company officials said.
Chief Executive Jeff Reinstein said in a statement the rebranding “more accurately reflects the products and services that we offer and the modern look and feel of our centers.”
The company said the name change responds to growth in shared office space offerings and “reflects the new combined definition of coworking, shared office space, and executive suites.”
Premier Workspaces has 15,000 clients at 90 U.S. locations totaling more than 1.5 million square feet.
One of its largest concentrations is in OC: as of last year it had 15 locations with 277,000 square feet—tops in both of any coworking company here, according to data from the Irvine office of brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.
WeWork looks likely to soon eclipse Premier on OC square footage, once several recently announced locations near John Wayne Airport open over the course of this year.
Irvine’s Bascom Group—a real estate investor best known for its portfolio of apartments—formed privately held Premier by snagging nine coworking locations owned by the defunct American Office Centers.
Western National Gets Capital Partner
Another Irvine-based apartment investor and developer, Western National Group, is expected to boost multifamily dealmaking in California through a new joint venture.
It partnered with Texas real estate investment manager Banner Oak Capital Partners LP, for capital to back “the acquisition of existing properties and for ground-up development projects,” Western National said in a statement.
The amount of funding wasn’t announced.
Chief Executive Michael Hayde said the venture may also seek third-party, limited partner capital for some projects.
Western National Group has bought or developed more than 50,000 apartment units since it launched six decades ago, and has 24,000 apartment units in its management portfolio.
New Lease for Irvine Scientific
Biopharmaceutical firm Fujifilm Irvine Scientific added another sizeable facility to its local operations.
The company, which provides a variety of clinical manufacturing services related to the development of cell cultures, recently signed an 81,978-square-foot lease at 1880 E. Saint Andrew Place, a large industrial and office building just west of the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway. It’s owned by Santa Ana’s Alere Property Group.
Colliers International Executive Vice President Clyde Stauff brokered the 10-year lease that begins this August.
“It’s a big expansion for a growing Orange County company,” Stauff told the Business Journal.
The deal increases the company’s square footage in and around the Irvine Business Complex to 224,461 square feet, according to Stauff.
Despite the name, much of Irvine Scientific’s local operations have been based in Santa Ana; it is now a unit of Japan’s Fujifilm, which bought the company last June.
Fujifilm paid Japanese oil and metals conglomerate JXTG Holdings about $800 million for Irvine Scientific and another related business.
The company does have one notable Irvine location: a 40,000-square-foot R&D center at 17112 Armstrong Ave.
