Irvine deal sees frequent buyer Glidewell Laboratories become a tenant

Former Ceradyne Spot; New Asset of BLT

OC’s largest dental products maker is continuing to grow its real estate portfolio of owned—and leased—properties around John Wayne Airport.

Glidewell Laboratories’ office and manufacturing portfolio near the airport runs some 500,000 square feet, encompassing “the largest dental technology campus in the world,” according to the firm.

Though Glidewell owns much of that inventory in Irvine and Newport Beach, it’s also adding to its leased portfolio in the area, most recently inking a long-term deal for a 40,645-square-foot industrial building in Irvine not far from the headquarters campus of Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (see story, page 16).

The building at 17466 Daimler St. is about 2 miles from a bulk of Glidewell’s assets in Irvine, just off Von Karman Avenue.

$6M Lease

Glidewell will use the new industrial property to manufacture its various types of restorative dental implants, according to real estate officials involved in the transaction.

The 10-year lease is for the entirety of the building, which was built in 1969 and acquired about a year ago by Santa Monica’s BLT Enterprises.

The Irvine-based real estate investor paid $8.9 million, or about $219 per square foot, for the manufacturing facility. It was previously occupied by Ceradyne Inc., a Costa Mesa maker of ceramic products for defense, oil, gas and automotive uses.

The dental companies’ Glidewell Dental Ceramics division is said to be occupying the building; it’s not known if any of the ceramic machinery once used by Ceradyne at the facility are being repurposed for the new tenant.

Grant Labounty and Justin Smith of Lee & Associates represented BLT Enterprises in the nearly $6 million lease transaction. Allison Kelly of CBRE represented Glidewell.

“Buoyed by the strongest industrial demand in Orange County within six years, the property attracted robust tenant interest based on its inherent value and on the highquality, strategic improvements BLT is implementing throughout the asset, which positioned the building as the right fit for Glidewell’s needs,” said Lisa Tamayo, vice president of real estate at BLT Enterprises.

Owned Portfolio

Glidewell’s primarily been a buyer of buildings around John Wayne Airport of late, not a tenant. Its most recent acquisition in July was for 2300 Michelson, a 24,000square-foot office at the busy intersection of Von Karman Avenue and Michelson Drive.

It paid $10.8 million for the property that’s next to some of the company’s other area facilities; Glidewell owns much of the real estate on the western side of Von Karman Avenue, between Michelson and Dupont Drive.

The dental company’s roughly 1,500 employee count in the airport area now exceeds that of Allergan Aesthetics, whose campus is on the opposite side of Von Karman Avenue.

Glidewell ranks No. 1 on the Business Journal’s list of dental companies by employee count.