Corporate center part of city growth

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The latest evidence of the city’s booming industry is

a large office complex under construction near Springdale Street and

Skylab Road.

Master Development Corp. began the project in October without knowing

which tenants would move in, said Jim Lamb, the city’s project manager.

There’s an inherent risk in waiting to find interested companies, a

strategy known as “building for speculation,” he said.

“It’s one of the signs of a robust economy,” Lamb said.

The $7-million project is made up of a pair of two-story, cream-colored

buildings, both about 50,000 square feet in size with more than 200

parking spaces, said Bryan Bentrott, the developer’s vice president. The

project will generate about $70,000 annually for the city in property

taxes, he said.

With construction expected to finish by June, Bentrott said he has

already found one tenant, a company that prefers to remain anonymous for

now, he said. He is confident the second building also will be scooped up

soon.

“We are going to deliver a couple of great companies in the city,” he

said.

The city is an especially attractive place to set up shop, he added. It

offers a “fantastic mix” of white and blue collar workers, Bentrott said.

It is also close to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and offers

upscale residential communities for company executives.

Master Development’s future corporate center joins a host of other

companies already settled into an area that as recently as 10 years ago

was a strawberry field, Lamb said. When the recession of the early 1990s

ended, the city began to enjoy an economic resurgence.

“All of the sudden, when the economy turned around, we picked up nicely,”

Lamb said.

Next door to the new project is plastic manufacturer Cambro. Across the

street is Dynamic Cooking Systems, a maker of high-end ovens. A stone’s

throw away, at the corner of Springdale and Bolsa Avenue, is the Western

regional headquarters for Sharp Electronics.

“You’ve got a little bit of everything,” Lamb said.