Finding Traces of Silicon in Suburbia

For the last 15 years, the operative mentality in Orange County has been: Build a tech center and the companies will follow.

This plan has been hugely successful with the development of Irvine Spectrum, Irvine Co.’s field of dreams. But it’s too soon to tell whether the massive business park will become--as billed--the next Silicon Valley.

According to Donald Bren, the center’s visionary founder and chairman of Irvine Co., everything about it is aimed at transforming 5,000 acres of strawberry fields into the region’s reigning digital king.

How? First, there’s space. Orange County has more square footage of available commercial space than Silicon Valley, Irvine Co. says. At Irvine Spectrum, promoters tout everything from general access to high-speed data lines to the campus’ landscaping.

Another benefit is access to major transportation routes and easy access to both San Diego and Los Angeles. Within 15 minutes, employees can reach the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways, John Wayne Airport, and an Amtrak station located in the middle of the Spectrum itself.

Also attractive is the synergy between the business world and UC Irvine, whose research staff garnered Nobel Prizes in chemistry and physics in 1995.

So far, the formula works. The Spectrum’s ever-growing campus now includes 2,200 companies, a large number of them technology start-ups.

“There’s no need for us to be parochial about this, or to say that we only want companies to come to Orange County. We want everyone in California to do well,” said Richard Sim, executive vice president of Irvine Co. “But there’s no denying that in Southern California, we are the biggest technology hub. Everything that a company could possibly want is here. What else is missing?”

Silicon Valley’s risk-oriented soul, say local executives.

In its early days, Silicon Valley fed off a constant supply of engineers and executives alienated by the bureaucratic culture of big business--people such as Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore, who split from Fairchild Semiconductor to found Intel.

Orange County executives say the spirit of unconventionality and defiance is lacking here. There are no local cafes or corner bars where programmers meet and kvetch after work. And critics say it’s tough to start a revolution from the relative comforts of suburbia.

“People say we’re the next Silicon Valley,” said Don Allen, a spokesman for Wonderware, which is often cited as a Spectrum success story. “But it’s obvious to me that we need more time to mature.”

Few of the computer technology companies based in the Spectrum are industry leaders. The center has no Intel or Microsoft, no single dominant player spinning out dozens of young millionaires eager to launch their own firms.

Microsoft, AT&T; and Apple each have a presence in the Spectrum, but only in the form of sales offices, not major research and development centers or dominant manufacturing hubs.

So what is here? A solid, comfortable foundation primed for growth, say industry watchers.

On the PC front, there’s Western Digital, a maker of hard disk drives, and consumer electronics behemoth Toshiba America Electronic Components. The digital buzz spills out to the surrounding area, with Rockwell International making Costa Mesa the home for its headquarters and Newport Beach the hub for its semiconductor business.

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It’s the promise of a golden future that draws companies such as Laughlin-Wilt Group to the area. When the electronics manufacturing firm decided to open an office outside Oregon, employees called their travel agents and booked flights to all of the typical high-tech hubs, including Silicon Valley, North Carolina’s Research Triangle and Boston’s Route 128.

Then they heard about Irvine Spectrum, where 27% of the technology companies fall into the biotechnology or biomedical firms.

The advantage of moving to Orange County, said company founder Joe Laughlin, was simply the lack of competition and the availability of cheaper space.

“Breaking into Silicon Valley right now is impossible,” said Laughlin, whose company provides manufacturing and circuit-board assembly services to telecommunication and medical device makers. “Here we can slip into the scene.”