REAL ESTATE : TRW Signs Lease at High-Rise to Be Built by IDM Corp.

TRW Inc. recently took another step in its proposed vault across the Santa Ana Freeway, signing a 10-year lease for 385,000 square feet of an Orange office tower slated for construction by IDM Corp.

In April, Cleveland-based TRW announced plans to move its local operations out of four buildings at The City office park to a nearby, customized high-rise, due for completion in May of 1993. If all goes smoothly, Long Beach developer IDM will build the structure with the assurance that nine of its 10 floors have been leased before the first I-beam is riveted.

The $80-million deal could become one of the largest leases ever in Orange County. And at a time when lenders balk at financing commercial projects for which no tenants have been secured, this is probably the biggest office building set for construction in the county.

TRW would centralize its 1,200 local employees under one roof--in a building designed to include a 100,000-square-foot data center and a 6,700-square-foot day-care center.

The massive consumer-credit service was lured to the new high-rise by lower rents. “It’s a significant savings for them,” said Matlow-Kennedy broker Richard Zimmerman, who represented TRW in the negotiations.

Although financing for the granite building has not been etched in stone, IDM spokesman Jim McMillan expressed optimism, given the developer’s unusual guarantee of an anchor tenant. “We have a number of interested lenders,” he said.

However, if the deal collapses, TRW still will have a home in the offices it has leased for the past 15 years, its current landlord said.

“A deal isn’t over until it’s over,” said William Durslag, first vice president with Tishman West, developer of The City. “If IDM is unable to get financing, obviously we would like to keep (TRW) here.”

Eventually, IDM hopes to add another three or four office towers to the 19-acre site, where the Orange Drive-In theater now stands. Construction of the entire $650-million project would be finished in the middle to late 1990s.