St. John Knits Tries the Fit of New $4.5-Million Facility

St. John Knits is moving into a $4.5-million design center and design showroom. The facility, which includes a new manufacturing plant for the upscale apparel and accessories company, is on Armstrong Avenue in Irvine.

St. John demolished an older building at the site to make way for the state-of-the-art center, which includes a 21,000-square-foot manufacturing area that houses 60 computerized knitting machines. It also has room for a new St. John subsidiary that designs and manufactures sequins.

The building was developed by Snyder Langston, a real estate development and construction services firm that’s also finishing corporate headquarters buildings for Oakley Inc. in Foothill Ranch.

Greg Johnson covers retail businesses and restaurants for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5950 and at greg.johnson@latimes.com.