Ortel Corp., which makes lasers and fiber-optic products for cable companies, wants to move from Alhambra to the former Home Savings of America campus in Irwindale.
But first, the Irwindale City Council must consider an appeal filed by the adjacent Baldwin Park Unified School District over the use of toxic materials at the site and the possible impact on two nearby schools, said Planning Director Ron Smothers.
The Irwindale Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for Ortel in late November. Superintendent Susan Parks said the school district has appealed because it has no information about the project.
“I’m not in a position to say this is a great or a lousy project,” she said. “We are not intending to stop it, but we want to protect the rights of the district.”
Ortel and school officials intended to meet late last week to discuss Ortel’s plans. The company is seeking to build a 20,000-square-foot building to house its “clean room.” The facility would be used during the production of semiconductors, which requires the use of small amounts of hazardous chemicals, according to a city staff report.
The report also points out that Ortel has become a leader in handling such materials and preparing for emergencies. The new building would have “all kinds of bells and whistles as far as monitoring and safety precautions,” Smothers said.
Ortel also wants to lease an existing 168,000-square-foot building to house assembly operations and corporate offices.
“We view them as an ideal tenant for that complex, and it would be a big benefit for surrounding cities, such as El Monte and Baldwin Park,” Smothers said.
The corporation is currently located in 11 buildings on a campus in Alhambra but needs more space to grow. The Irwindale plan calls for doubling the number of employees from 600 to 1,200 in the next several years.
Smothers said Ortel has indicated it would move to Phoenix or Las Vegas if the Irwindale proposal doesn’t work out. “It’s a high-tech business California needs to hang on to,” he said.
A move to Irwindale by Ortel would be a coup for Washington Mutual, which inherited the Rivergrade Road campus when it merged with H.F. Ahmanson & Co., the parent of Home Savings. WaMu also inherited Home Savings’ lease with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., which owns the Irwindale campus. Eleven years remain on that lease.
WaMu hired Trammell Crow Co. to sublease the 42-acre complex. The initial push was for a single user, but none could be found. As a result, WaMu has applied for a permit to convert the complex from single tenant to multi-tenant occupancy.
Jonathan Larsen, a director at Trammell Crow, said brokers are negotiating “a few large leases” but declined to confirm anything about Ortel.
The City Council is set to hear the school district appeal on Jan. 13.
West Hills Campus Filling Up
Four more leases with a total value of $9.2 million have been signed at West Hills Corporate Village. The deals bring the occupancy of the 565,000-square-foot, low-rise campus to more than 400,000 square feet.
Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power division, which currently occupies 170,000 square feet, has expanded by another 24,000 square feet, said Doug Brown, managing partner with Regent Properties, which is developing the campus with Shamrock Holdings.
In addition, Xerox Corp. will move its West San Fernando Valley business office from its home of 20 years in Woodland Hills to 17,177 square feet at West Hills.
Also, Vast Wireless Systems will relocate from its headquarters in Calabasas to a larger, 10,000-square-foot space. And Pitney Bowes Management Services Inc. leased 11,000 square feet.
Marc Sullivan with Julien J. Studley represented the owners. Bob Shafer and Bill Inglis of CB Richard Ellis represented Boeing in its expansion. Chris Cooper and Jim Ardell of Jones Lang LaSalle represented Xerox and Vast Wireless, respectively. And Trammell Crow’s Jonathan Larsen represented Pitney Bowes.
Lease-O-Rama
Lots and lots of leases have been signed this month. There’s not room to list all of them, but here are a couple of key deals on the Westside and downtown:
-Interactive Video Technologies Inc. leased 27,000 square feet in The Tower at 10940 Wilshire Blvd., owned by Tishman Speyer Properties. The five-year deal is valued at about $4.8 million. The new tenant, which is moving from Santa Monica, produces video content for the Internet such as training videos for Fortune 500 firms.
Micheal Geller, Jeffrey Resnick and Michael Freiberg of First Property Realty Corp. brokered the deal.
-The law firm Davis Wright & Tremaine leased 25,000 square feet at 865 S. Figueroa St. The Seattle-based firm is moving from 1000 Wilshire to the entire 24th floor and part of the 25th floor of the building, bringing occupancy to almost 95 percent. Terms of the 10-year deal were not disclosed.
Landlord Manulife Financial was represented by leasing director Parker Jones, while Whitley Collins and Mark O’Brien of CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant.
Ezralow to Develop Downey Site
The Downey City Council unanimously voted to negotiate a six-month exclusive agreement with the Ezralow Co. as the sole developer of a 126-acre site north of Imperial Highway.
Ezralow had been in competition for the site with two other development teams Industrial Realty Group and Lennar Partners, and Legacy Partners and Vestar Development.
The site was formerly occupied by Boeing’s Reusable Space Systems Operation. In the mid-1960s, Rockwell employed 25,000 people there.
Downey officials hope new mixed-use development can replace some of those jobs.
“This development will promote Downey’s identity with its unique combination of media production, industrial production, community areas and retail,” said Mayor Keith McCarthy.
Elizabeth Hayes can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 229, or at [email protected].
