Anduril Industries is taking over three consecutive floors at one of Orange County’s most recognizable office towers, adding a prominent address to its rapidly expanding real estate portfolio
The defense tech company recently moved into a contemporary 70,640-square-foot space at Plaza Tower in Costa Mesa, a distinctive 21-story office building designed by internationally renowned architect César Pelli and CRSS Architects. The distinctive, stainless steel and glass façade building is home to notable tenants including aerospace manufacturer Ducommun and law firm Snell & Wilmer LLP.
Anduril replaces IBM, the tower’s original tenant. It served as IBM’s Southern California headquarters. The Segerstrom family still owns the tower.
Anduril also signed a 102,400-square-foot-office lease
Anduril also signed a 102,400-square-foot-office lease at the Koll Center Newport at 4000 MacArthur Blvd. in Newport Beach, where it will occupy floors 1-4 and 6-8 when it moves in December.
The leases mark another milestone for Anduril, which, in less than a decade, has taken nearly 2.4 million square feet of space across at least 15 properties throughout Orange County.
The Costa Mesa-based defense tech company is also expanding beyond the county, with plans for another $1 billion, 1.2-million-square-foot headquarters on Cover Street next to Long Beach Airport, which broke ground earlier this year and is slated to open in mid-2027.
When the company first arrived in Orange County,
When the company first arrived in Orange County, few commercial real estate brokers could have predicted Anduril’s impact on the county’s real estate or aerospace and defense market.
In 2017, the company went from leasing a roughly 8,000-square-foot space in Tustin to a 15,500-square-foot facility in Irvine before its first major expansion in 2019, when it took over a 155,000-square-foot building near Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive.
Anduril, co-founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf and a handful of other entrepreneurs, landed in Costa Mesa.
The company develops autonomous drones including the Ghost
The company develops autonomous drones including the Ghost & Ghost X, advanced weapons systems and military software for the U.S. Department of Defense, law enforcement and allied governments.
An Anduril spokesperson told the Business Journal that the defense tech company has 6,500 employees in Orange County, with about 5,200 of those being full-time.
It is Orange County’s largest defense and aerospace firm, ahead of Arlington, Virginia-based Boeing, which has roughly 5,200 employees in Seal Beach, according to the latest employee data collected by the Business Journal.
Anduril’s new Long Beach–Lakewood campus is expected
Anduril’s new Long Beach–Lakewood campus is expected to support about 5,500 onsite jobs and thousands more indirectly through its Southern California supplier network.
“I don’t know anybody who would have said they saw Anduril coming and expected that, within 10 years, it would become one of Orange County’s largest employers,” Sean Ward, executive vice president at CBRE told the Business Journal.
In an August report on advanced manufacturing, CBRE said the industry is at a “massive inflection point,” driven by advances in robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, defense and artificial intelligence.
Anduril has emerged as a major player in that transformation.
The privately held company was valued at $61
The privately held company was valued at $61 billion following a $5 billion funding round in May. An employee stock sale announced this month could value Anduril at roughly $90 billion
The company also recently secured two major military contracts worth up to a combined $4.7 billion.
Anduril’s growth is not without risk.
The current White House administration has supported the defense industry, setting aside nearly $1 trillion for defense spending.
The U.S. government has awarded Anduril billions
The U.S. government has awarded Anduril billions. But Orange County history shows that its aerospace and defense sector has laid off thousands during economic downturns and military budget cuts.
“I think that’s the biggest potential headwind, just the political risk,” Ward said.
Aerospace Resurgence Reshapes OC Real Estate
Long before Anduril Industries became a force in Orange County’s defense industry, aerospace giants such as Rockwell, Hughes Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas helped transform the region into a center for advanced manufacturing and technology.
Drawn by abundant land and mild weather, aerospace and defense contractors began expanding into Orange County in the 1950s as military spending and the space race fueled demand.
The industry created thousands of jobs,
The industry created thousands of jobs, but it declined sharply after the Cold War, as defense cuts and consolidation wiped out local jobs.
Today, established players such as Boeing, RTX and Parker Aerospace remain major employers, while a new generation of companies — Anduril Industries, Mach Industries, Karman Space & Defense and Turion Space — is revitalizing the region’s aerospace and defense sector.
According to CBRE’s 2025 Orange County Aerospace & Defense Report, the industry is now a major force behind demand.
The 15 largest aerospace and defense companies
The 15 largest aerospace and defense companies in the county use about 10.6 million square feet of office and industrial space.
Irvine-based Panasonic Avionics Corp., which makes in-flight entertainment systems for airlines, led last year’s list with 2.3 million square feet. Anduril had 1.9 million but has since increased its space significantly. Both RTX — parent of Raytheon — and Collins Aerospace occupied nearly 1 million square feet.
CBRE Executive Vice President Sean Ward told the Business Journal that Southern California is now a major hub for defense technology and advanced manufacturing. It estimates that the industry’s total economic output in Orange County reached $7.1 billion in 2024.
“They’re kind of transitioning and having a second wave of working with these younger companies,” Ward said.
