JLL Completes 163,734-SF Santa Ana Office Lease with Corinthian Colleges

Jones Lang LaSalle managing director Ronda Clark

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Jones Lang LaSalle represented Corinthian Colleges, Inc. in its lease renewal for 163,734 square feet of office space in Griffin Towers, off the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway in Santa Ana, Calif.

Griffin Towers is comprised of two buildings, located at 5 & 6 Hutton Centre Dr. Corinthian Colleges occupies space in both 14-story buildings, which is located in the South Coast Metro area, running approximately between John Wayne Airport and South Coast Plaza.

“After a comprehensive market analysis, Corinthian Colleges decided that remaining in its existing space was the best long-term solution for the company,” said Ronda Clark, managing director with the Irvine office of Jones Lang LaSalle, who represented the tenant in the lease along with colleagues Ryan Hawkins and Joe Bevan. “Despite improving market conditions and limited supply of large contiguous blocks of space, Jones Lang LaSalle was able to help Corinthian achieve favorable terms including a reduction in rent, early termination and expansion options, a tenant improvement allowance to enhance existing space and parking abatement.”

Corinthian Colleges has been in the space since 1998, growing from a single-floor tenant to leasing eight-full floors. It was said to be eyeing other locations in the area for a potential relocation.

“We did look at various alternatives. We were trying to keep location options within reasonable travel distance for our employees so it didn’t have a big impact on the majority of them,” Paul Dimeo, Corinthian’s vice president of real estate, told Commercial Property Executive. “What we found here is the landlord came back with a competitive proposal. I think our intention was try to drive the best bargain possible here and in order to do that, you need to be prepared to relocate and we were seriously prepared to do that. We had one foot out the door.”

The two buildings, which total about 550,000 square feet, are run by Dallas-based landlord Lincoln Property Co., which bought the complex in 2010 in a deal with New York-based private equity firm Angelo Gordon & Co.

“Lincoln Property realized we are a significant part of their building. We lease over 1/3 of the entire building,” Dimeo said. “They gave us the flexibility we needed to go forward with the uncertainty in our business. It also gave us enough tenant improvement dollars in order to remodel the existing campus headquarters so we’re in the process right now of looking how we are going to do that to accomplish the same goals we were looking for in relocation: to make the working environment more suitable and current for our employees.”

The space will continue to serve as Corinthian Colleges’ corporate headquarters.

Corinthian operates 116 campuses of Everest, Heald and WyoTech colleges in the United States and Canada.

Lincoln Property was represented in the transaction in-house by Kevin Hayes Jr.

Terms of the lease were not immediately disclosed.