REAL ESTATE

Going South: Birtcher Medical, now based in Los Angeles County, is following an exodus of companies to south Orange County, where workers are plentiful in the rapidly developing towns of the area.

The firm, currently located in El Monte, is moving its 150-employee headquarters in August to the Irvine Spectrum, a huge office and industrial park planned at the junction of the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways in Irvine.

Birtcher, which was started by distant relatives of the family that runs the big Orange County development company of the same name, will lease two buildings totaling 67,000 square feet at the Spectrum’s Lakeview Business Center from O’Donnell, Armstrong & Partners Inc., a developer active in the Spectrum. The 10-year lease is valued at $7.3 million.

Lakeview is a joint venture between a unit of the Irvine Co. and O’Donnell, Armstrong.