Tustin Legacy’s Flight Offices Under New Ownership

The first and largest ground-up creative office campus in Orange County has come under new ownership.

Glendon Capital Management bought a majority stake in the six-year-old Flight at Tustin Legacy campus in Tustin, the Orange County Business Journal reported. The firm was founded in 2013 by a group of former Oaktree Capital executives and is reported to manage about $5 billion in assets.

Glendon joins previous investor Lincoln Property Company among ownership and replaces Boston-based private equity firm Alcion Ventures as the primary investor in Flight. Lincoln Property will continue to serve as its property and asset manager of the 19-acre property.

Flight is part of Tustin Legacy, a planned community in Tustin being developed on the former Marine Corps Air Station Tustin. The property, which consists of eight buildings totaling 455,000 square feet of offices, a conference and events center, and the 12,000-square-foot Mess Hall food court, is valued at just under $200 million, per property records cited by the Business Journal.

Flight sits near the intersection of Barranca Parkway and Red Hill Avenue along the Tustin and Irvine city line. Its multi-story office buildings range from about 90,000 to 145,000 square feet; there are also some smaller single-tenant office buildings that max out at about 13,000 square feet. Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space tourism company, is a key tenant at the property, with its global headquarters spanning nearly 100,000 square feet. Other large tenants include dental benefits firm Liberty Dental Plan and smart home device maker Vesync. Recent additions include HyperX, HP’s gaming and esports division.

The Flight campus debuted a year before the pandemic and occupancy reached nearly 97 percent before dipping more recently to 85 percent, with departures of offices for phone-case maker Incipio and the now-defunct 99 Cents Only Stores, which had its headquarters at the campus.

CBRE is managing leasing for the Flight property, which currently counts about 30 tenants.

— Chris Malone Méndez