Irvine Co. Is Making Room for Science in New Building

The Irvine Co. is making its first bet on biotechnology.

The Orange County real estate behemoth is investing $2.2 million on new laboratory facilities in a building under construction in its University Research Park near UC Irvine’s Biomedical Research Center.

For a company that once shelled out $227 million for roads and infrastructure to launch its now successful high-tech industrial park in the Irvine Spectrum, a couple million dollars isn’t that much, of course. And the lab facilities in question involve 22,000 square feet of space--just half of a two-story building set to open in April.

Still, building a single-use facility on speculation is unusual for a company that mass produces modular spaces for multiple uses. This structure also requires high-ticket specialty equipment, such as lab benches, exhaust hoods, special plumbing and air-flow systems.

The investment helps support the university’s research center, which has received $7.5 million in donations from the personal foundation of Irvine Co. owner Donald Bren. That money has funded positions and research projects for 10 scientists.

If the lab facilities are leased as hoped, the company will plunk down another $2.2 million to install labs in the other half of the building, said Richard Sim, Irvine Co.’s president of investment properties.

“We try to let the market tell us what to do,” Sim said in an interview earlier this week as a crane moved a side of the building into place. “If we fall on our face with the first 22,000 square feet, we won’t build any more.”

What’s the potential market? Roughly 100 biomedical companies and research outfits in Orange County and twice that many in San Diego County.

The company aims to rent lab space at monthly rates of $2.75 to $3 per square foot, compared to rates of $1.65 to $1.75 per square foot for its more typical modular space elsewhere at its research park, or the Spectrum.