REAL ESTATE : Tenant Lures Getting More Elaborate as Office Vacancy Rate Hovers at 20%

With vacancy rates for big office buildings hovering around 20%, developers in Orange County are devising ever more elaborate marketing programs to lure tenants into their buildings.

One such is offered by Tishman Construction Corp. of California at the $100-million office complex it is building in Orange.

Next to the first of two office towers, Tishman has opened a 1,600-square-foot marketing center it says is “virtually a microcosm” of Tishman Executive Towers.

The marketing center has two model offices and a conference room that mirror rooms in the nearly completed office building scheduled to open in January. It is built of the same granite and gray glass as its full-sized neighbor.

Inside the center, nine projectors display a multimedia show for prospective tenants. At the end, the screen rises to reveal a scale model of the office complex, which is being developed by Tishman and Executive Life Insurance Co.

The trend toward flashy presentations was given a boost two years ago, when the Irvine Co. began showing sophisticated audio-visual presentations to prospective tenants at a big marketing center in Irvine.