SANTA ANA — An aging office campus near South Coast Plaza has been transformed into a modern industrial headquarters for one of the country’s fastest-growing defense technology companies.

Costa Mesa-based C.J. Segerstrom & Sons has completed the $65.5 million South Coast Technology Center, a three-building, 313,000-square-foot industrial campus at 3600 S. Susan Street and 3100-3120 Lake Center Drive in Santa Ana, fully leased to Anduril.

Construction on the first building began in November 2024 and it opened late last year. The second and third buildings have been handed over to Anduril but are not yet in us, according to Jeffrey M. Reese, the development manager with C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, who spoke to the Business Journal.

Reese said the completed campus matches what the Segerstroms had in mind when they started planning the redevelopment years ago.

Irvine-based RM Dalton, which previously built another project for the Segerstroms, served as general contractor. DRA Architects, also of Irvine, designed the campus.

“I think everyone’s really happy with it,” Reese said.

“There’s a lot of articulation and interest in the design that you don’t normally see in a typical industrial building,” he added.

RM Dalton’s work ranked No. 10 on the Business Journal’s annual list of the biggest construction projects in Orange County as of June 30, 2026 (see page 15).

Replacing an Old Office

The $65.5 million South Coast Technology Center is one of the Segerstrom family’s largest new ground-up developments in years. The Segerstroms are among Orange County’s most well-known real estate names, best known for creating South Coast Plaza and much of the South Coast Metro area.

The family has an even bigger project planned across from the mall. They plan to tear down South Coast Village and redevelop it into a mixed-use center with 1,583 homes, 80,000 square feet of retail, 300,000 square feet of office space and nearly 14 acres of outdoor and recreational space.

The South Coast Technology Center is located less than two miles from Anduril’s main headquarters, The Press, in Costa Mesa, formerly the Orange County bureau for the Los Angeles Times.

The redevelopment took the place of a 178,000-square-foot office campus that had three buildings, a parking structure, and a man-made lake.

Reese said the Segerstroms started talking about converting the offices to industrial space around 2022, after the pandemic led many employers to switch to remote or hybrid work.

Reese said the Lake Center Office Park faced leasing challenges.

Occupancy dropped at the Class B office campus, and offices were no longer being used as they had been before.

They wanted to pivot and create an industrial, manufacturing facility, where employees had to come into the building.

“These types of tenants, whether it’s Anduril or somebody else, they can’t work remotely because they’re building and shipping their products,” said Reese.

Power Needs

During construction, the main concern was not tearing down the buildings or draining the artificial lake.

According to Reese, it was power—the electricity.

The campus needed about 16,000 amps of power, much more than similar industrial buildings usually require, he said.

“The biggest challenge was whether we would actually have enough power,” Reese said.
Southern California Edison ultimately supplied the necessary power.

Industrial HQ

Reese said that from the beginning, they wanted more than just three standard warehouse buildings.

Segerstrom aimed to create an “industrial corporate headquarters” that would bring together offices, engineering, research and development, assembly, light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution.

They added features, not normally seen in typical industrial projects, such as balconies, patios, architectural panels, outdoor gathering spaces and extra parking for more employees, Reese said.

The development offers about 500 parking spaces and delete includes a small public park.

Rick Dalton, president of RM Dalton, said these buildings aren’t “your typical tilt-up buildings.”

“They’re designed more like office buildings,” Dalton said. “If you look at the exterior, lots of glass, lots of metal, ornamental metals — just beautiful design.”

The Costa Mesa-based defense contractor first leased one building, then eventually took all three.

Reese said that attracting a dynamic company like Anduril proved that replacing the old office campus with a new development was the right decision, not just for Segerstrom or Santa Ana, but for Orange County’s future economy.

“They could decide to plant their flag anywhere in the country,” Reese said, “and they decided to put it right here in Orange County.”