Skip to Content

Office Users Want Vertical Campuses

March 7, 2016

Carrie Rossenfeld 
GlobeSt.com 
07 March 2016

Customers desire a vibrant workplace community in a vertical setting that includes wellness and fitness facilities, outdoor work spaces and outstanding food, Irvine Co. Office Properties president Doug Holte tells GlobeSt.com. With the company recently christening 200 Spectrum Center as Orange County’s newest and tallest office building, we sat down for an exclusive chat with Holte about what the building represents for Orange County’s office market and trends in high-rise office buildings.

GlobeSt.com: What does 200 Spectrum Center represent for Orange County’s office market?

Holte: It’s the premier workplace community in Irvine and a sleek addition to Irvine’s skyline. We pored through extensive research and customer data to create the ultimate workplace experience for forward-thinking businesses in terms of design, coastal California amenities and services that simplify and elevate the lives of our customers and their employees.

The reception has been remarkable, and pre-leasing was very strong. Automotive innovator Mazda North American, shared work-space giant WeWork and cutting-edge, video game technology leader Curse Inc. will be among our first customers to move in. Curse is a great story for us and for Irvine. They searched the country for a new home, and decided to move some of its operations from San Francisco to Irvine Spectrum.

GlobeSt.com: What trends do you see emerging for Orange County high-rise office buildings?

Holte: We are transforming them into vertical campuses. When you think about a campus—the energy, easy access to high-quality amenities such as wellness and fitness facilities, outdoor work spaces and outstanding food—that’s what customers desire. They want a vibrant workplace community in a vertical setting.

At 200 Spectrum Center, we offer 10-foot, high-performing, floor-to-ceiling glass that reduces energy usage (it’s the same type of glass as the new One World Trade Center building in New York) and unobscured views of the Irvine Spectrum community, Saddleback Mountains, Laguna Canyon and more. At 200 Spectrum, executives no longer own the daylight. The building offers a lot of light for the entire workforce to enjoy, a detail companies across all industries tell us they want.

GlobeSt.com: What other office trends do you see strengthening?

Holte: We see a growing diversity of innovative companies who are excited to co-exist within a workplace community vs. the traditional clustering of industries that has dominated the marketplace. To meet the demand, we’ve begun construction at 400 Spectrum Center Drive, a 21-story vertical campus that will mirror 200 Spectrum Center Drive and complement the Spectrum Skyline®. Planning is also underway for our six “Next Gen Campus” office buildings totaling 528,000 square feet along at Discovery Business Center and Sand Canyon Business Center about a mile from 200 Spectrum Center. These new workplace communities add to the vibrancy of Irvine Spectrum, especially during evenings and weekends. Our buildings in Irvine Spectrum are nearly full, and we continue to see strong demand from companies in a diverse array of industries.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about 200 Spectrum Center?

Holte: It’s the most photographed building in our portfolio. More than 75 people have posted images, many of them stunning, on Instagram even before the building opened. Our executive team has received dozens of emails from friends and colleagues who have photographed the building.

Some used words such as translucent or a “floating jewel box” to describe it. It’s exciting that the building, designed by world-renowned architect Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, has been so embraced by the community.

Also, both 200 and 400 Spectrum Center offer two Irvine Co. signature amenities: the Commons, an open-air gathering place featuring casual workspaces, an outdoor living room and complimentary WiFi; and KINETIC, which blends a state-of-the-art onsite fitness center and wellness services, with close proximity to the St. Joseph Hoag Health Wellness Corner at The Village apartment homes. It’s also at the center of one of California’s most successful mixed-use community, providing office customers with a variety of housing choices within walking and biking distance and, across the street, the dynamic Irvine Spectrum Center shopping center, which offers 1.2 million square feet of restaurant, retail and entertainment.

Success Works Here.®