Civil litigation law firm Wolfe & Wyman LLP, OC’s No. 37 law firm by local lawyer count, has gone from renter to owner in the office area around John Wayne Airport.
The firm, founded in 1994 and with 27 local attorneys and 53 area employees as of last year, recently moved into a new building it bought about a year ago, at 2212 Dupont Drive.
It paid just under $6.3 million, or about $305 per square foot, for the nearly 21,000-square-foot office, which sits across the street from a large portion of Glidewell Laboratories’ Irvine campus.
The two-story building was last owned by James Glidewell, owner of the dental product device giant. Glidewell, one of the largest private owners of real estate in the airport area, owns a bulk of the property bordered by Dupont, Von Karman Avenue and Michelson Drive.
Wolfe & Wyman was last based at the nearby Dupont Center office building on the same street. Glidewell also owns that five-story property, where the law firm had been leasing about 20,000 square feet.
“After being a tenant at a Glidewell-owned property for over 10 years, it was a pleasure to partner with Jim Glidewell and his team on this purchase that is literally across the street from our old office,” Samuel Wyman, partner and co-founder of the firm, said in a statement.
The law firm was represented by local office of tenant brokerage Savills in the real estate transaction.
Major Rebuild
Prior to the move in, the building received a major overhaul and was still seeing some work as of last week.
Its interior was “demolished back to bare stud exterior walls and modernized for Wolfe & Wyman’s business needs going into the future,” according to Savills, whose EVP and OC Branch Manager Royce Sharf led the team in representing Wolfe & Wyman in the transaction.
Savills Corporate Managing Director Brad Schmitt also worked on the deal, as well as the director of Project Management for OC, Zane Keith, who managed the repositioning and renovation of the property.
Bolette Albertsen of BNA Design helped with the remake of the property, which now includes accessibility upgrades, structural alterations and creative amenity spaces like a large great room, dining areas, and a locker room.
“We were able to start with a clean slate and create a post-COVID environment that is open, inviting and will enhance the culture our team members have come to know and love” at the firm, Wyman said.
His law firm provides legal services to corporate, institutional and individual clients in California and Nevada. In addition to its Irvine headquarters, it also operates regional offices in Northern California, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Las Vegas.
“This acquisition permanently cements our long-term commitment to Orange County, and we look forward to being an engaged part of the community for many years to come,” Wyman said.
The new location allows the firm “to enjoy full autonomy of its spaces within a thoughtfully well-designed, reimagined office building that is custom-built to suit its needs and conveniently locates the growing firm’s new headquarters in one of the strongest office markets in the country,” said Sharf, who notes that the law firm is one of his oldest clients.
