Hawthorne-based SpaceX leases office space in Irvine

Hawthoe-based SpaceX, Elon Musk’s reusable rocket company, is exploring a new realm as part of its quest to build and launch advanced spacecraft: Orange County.

The company has signed a five-year lease for just under 8,000 square feet of “creative” office space in a newly renovated three-story building near Jamboree Road and Barranca Parkway in Irvine, according to the property’s manager, Wind Water Realty.

Calls and emails to SpaceX and to the company’s agent seeking more information were not retued.

This appears to be the third Califoia operation for SpaceX, which also has a launch facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc.

Other sites include a launch facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas, and offices in Houston and Washington, D.C., according to its website.

The company located its manufacturing headquarters and 450 employees in Hawthoe in 2008 and has expanded rapidly, now employing more than 4,000 people at its pristine white building along Crenshaw Boulevard. The site previously was home to Vought Aircraft Industries, which built Boeing 747 fuselages.

Several smaller industrial sites nearby also are leased by SpaceX for testing and other purposes. Musk also has said he will build a nearly one-mile track adjacent to SpaceX where tests can be conducted for a hyperloop high-speed transportation system. Musk also has a design center in Hawthoe for his Tesla Motors, and recently completed a seven-story parking structure across from SpaceX headquarters.

It’s unclear how many people will be working at the Irvine office or what they will be doing. But SpaceX is advertising three engineering positions for the Irvine office in its online job postings.

“They were looking for a contemporary office with easy access where their engineers can work from,” Ivana Chavarria, a Wind Water Realty marketing and public relations staffer, said in an email.

The office is in a 30-year-old, 42,000-square-foot office building acquired in 2015 by Kelemen Caamaño Investments of Irvine. The investors spent $4 million and eight months renovating the offices.

“We are very pleased with this opportunity to welcome SpaceX to Orange County,” said Tibor Kelemen, Kelemen Caamaño president. “This was our vision when we acquired this property, to transform it into a mode work environment for the most iovative, thriving companies.”

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