REAL ESTATE : Lawyers Take Liking to Brinderson Towers, Filling 35% of Space

Brinderson Towers--those hard-to-miss black granite high-rises in Irvine--seem to have become a magnet for attorneys. The 16 law firms and 139 attorneys in the office complex account for more than one-third of the buildings’ tenants. In Tower II alone, which is about 35% occupied, two-thirds of the tenants are law firms.

“The buildings offer the prestige with which law firms like to be associated,” said Stephen Lane, leasing manager with Compass Management and Leasing Inc., which has been marketing Brinderson Tower II since March.

Rooming with the competition doesn’t bother the law firms, Lane said: “Lawyers are as diverse as medical specialists--often, they have a specific clientele that doesn’t overlap with the other law firms’ specialties.”

In January, Atlanta-based Equitable Real Estate Investment Management Inc. took full ownership of Brinderson Tower II in a restructuring of its partnership with Brinderson Real Estate Group of Irvine. Tower I is still jointly owned by Equitable and Brinderson Real Estate, which remains the property manager for both buildings.

Equitable brought in Compass, one of its subsidiaries, as a full-time leasing agent for Tower II, which opened in 1990, a year after Tower I. The original high-rise enjoys an occupancy rate of 98%, but the second plush tower debuted at a time when such buildings were becoming more difficult to lease.