Taco Bell to Relocate Offices to Koll Center

In a bid to place all of its corporate office workers at a single location, Taco Bell Corp. on Monday signed the largest office space lease in Orange County history.

The $1.2-billion Irvine-based Mexican fast food chain has agreed to move into a $50-million, 12-story building--278,000 square feet--just being completed in the Koll Co.’s Koll Center in Irvine. Additionally, Taco Bell will lease five floors of the nearby Columbia Savings building for another 18,000 square feet.

Financial terms of the 10-year lease were not released.

The move will provide new “synergism” for Taco Bell, which currently has 850 corporate workers at three Irvine locations, said John Martin, Taco Bell president.

Taco Bell, with 2,200 restaurants in 47 states, also has regional offices in Los Angeles, Denver, Fort Worth, Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta. PepsiCo, which acquired Taco Bell in 1978, plans to double the number of Taco Bell units within the next five years.

With that growth in mind, Martin said the corporate headquarters also expects “major expansion in the years ahead” at the Koll Center.

The $1-billion Koll Center, a mixed-use commercial complex on a 95-acre site, is located at 17001 Von Karman Ave., near the San Diego Freeway.

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