ATL Signs Lease for Big Expansion at Research Park
In a boost for Irvine’s University Research Park, ATL Products Inc., a producer of data storage systems, is expanding to become the largest tenant at the 185-acre high-tech center.
ATL Products said it has leased an additional 117,000 square feet of office space at the research park, which is aiming to bolster the county’s high-tech economy by linking businesses with research and brainpower at neighboring UC Irvine.
The park, which is being developed by the Irvine Co., is home to research teams from such tech giants as Cisco Systems Inc. and America Online.
The value of ATL’s new, five-year lease was not disclosed, but real estate analysts estimated it to be $15 million. The deal is one of the largest in Orange County this year, based on office space rented.
With its expansion, ATL will occupy a total of 180,000 square feet in three buildings, more than twice the space of the park’s next largest tenant, Canon Information Systems Inc.
ATL currently employs 500 people at the park and expects to hire an additional 150 people by late September, said Neal Waddington, the company’s chief operating officer. “We’re enjoying some tremendous growth right now,” he said.
ATL also operates a manufacturing plant outside the park in Irvine.
“It’s good for us that a major company is growing like that,” said Bob Williams, president of Irvine Industrial Properties, a division of the Irvine Co. of Newport Beach. “It’s a positive note for the park,” he said.
The park, which has 22 buildings containing 1.2 million square feet of space, is 80% occupied. The Irvine Co. has six additional buildings under construction at the park.
A total of 40 buildings are planned, and at the current development pace, Williams said, that number could be reached in about 2 1/2 years. He said the company wants to keep an inventory of 10 buildings on hand to absorb new tenants or expansions.
The research park may be Orange County’s best hope for jump-starting its high-tech economy, which has lost ground to Los Angeles and San Diego in recent years.
Research parks have nurtured high-tech growth in many of the nation’s leading tech hubs, providing a place to translate university research into businesses. The Irvine Co. assumed stewardship of the project from UCI in late 1997.
