Orange County Nonprofit Grows Footprint in Santa Ana

A nonprofit focused on helping people with developmental disabilities is growing its headquarters in Santa Ana.

Regional Center of Orange County just inked a lease for 102,631 square feet at Tustin Centre, a complex comprising the Tustin Centre I tower at 1551 North Tustin Avenue and Tustin Centre II at 1525 North Tustin Avenue, Commercial Observer reported. Most of that space, 82,042 square feet, is a renewal for its current office space at Tustin Centre II, with the additional 20,589 square feet being one floor at the 10-story building next door.

The agreement is the largest office lease signed in Orange County so far this year, according to the Orange County Business Journal. The lease was “a huge success” for the RCOC that “allow[s] them to gain more space and stabilize their occupancy,” Kyle Sherburne, vice president at HRS Commercial Advisory, who represented the tenant in the deal, told CO.

Regional Center is the sole tenant at Tustin Centre II, occupying all four floors at the property, built in 2009. At Tustin Centre I, the new Regional Center extension will be neighbors with tenants like California Work Injury Law Center, A-L Financial and Orange Coast Title of Southern California.

Irvine-based development and investment firm Greenlaw Partners bought the two buildings in 2016 for $80.3 million. In 2004, Greenlaw purchased Tustin Centre I, which was built in the early 1990s, though it offloaded the properties in 2011. They subsequently changed hands multiple times in the following years before coming back under Greenlaw’s ownership in 2016.

Santa Ana represents the third-largest office market in Orange County after Irvine and Newport Beach, boasting nearly 10.4 million square feet of office space across the city. Office vacancy in the city still remains high, however; a CBRE report placed it at 17.4 percent in the first quarter, up from the county’s average of 15.3 percent.

— Chris Malone Méndez