Branson’s Virgin Galactic inks R&D lease at LPC West’s Flight at Tustin

Aerospace takes 61,000 sf for center of engineering on former Marine air base

From left: Michael Colglazier, CEO, Virgin Galactic, and David Binswanger, senior executive vice president, LPC West, in front of the FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy (Virgin Galactic, LPC West)
From left: Michael Colglazier, CEO, Virgin Galactic, and David Binswanger, senior executive vice president, LPC West, in front of the FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy (Virgin Galactic, LPC West)

Virgin Galactic has inked a lease for a new research and development facility in Tustin, Orange County.

The aerospace company–backed by globe-trotting billionaire Richard Branson–is leasing 61,000 square feet at the Flight at Tustin Legacy office complex, according to the Orange County Business Journal.

The 38-acre Flight at Tustin Legacy office complex is owned by LPC West, the West Coast arm of Lincoln Property Company. LPC West earlier this year signed Orange County-based medical company STARK to a space there.

Flight at Tustin is a former Marine Corp Air Station. Along with 870,000 square feet of office space across several buildings, the complex includes a food hall and a conference center.

Virgin Galactic currently leases 12,000 square feet at the complex. The company bills the new space as a “design and collaboration center where the [company’s] next-generation vehicles will be designed and engineered,” according to the Business Journal.

The new office is large enough to accommodate around 200 employees. The company is currently advertising more than 100 positions for the Tustin offices, most of them for engineering roles.

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The company has headquarters at Spaceport America in Las Cruces, New Mexico. It also has facilities in L.A. County, Washington D.C. and the United Kingdom.

LPC West meanwhile has been in expansion mode. In October, details surfaced of a planned 150,000-square-foot complex in Culver City. The project is a joint venture with Clarion Partners.

Clarion and LPC West also partnered last year to purchase the Jefferson Creative Campus in Culver City for $169 million. It was one of last year’s priciest office investment sales.

July saw the firm partner with Angelo Gordon to buy a 241,000-square-foot office complex in Pasadena for $73 million.

Late last year the company partnered with Russell Geyser’s investment firm to purchase the Hollywood 959 office complex in Hollywood from J.H. Snyder Co. The partners paid $186 million for the complex.

[OCBJ] — Dennis Lynch