Nonprofit insurance provider Blue Shield of California, the state’s third largest health plan, recently signed a long-term lease for office space in East Long Beach that will bring over 1,000 jobs to the city.

The company signed an 11-year lease for 71,753 square feet of office space at 3840 Kilroy Airport Way at the Aero Long Beach office campus. The five-story, roughly 136,000-square-foot building has sat vacant for about two years after Epson America relocated its headquarters to Los Alamitos in the summer of 2020.

The news comes shortly after BH Properties announced on June 13 it had purchased two Monterey Park office buildings from Blue Shield for $15 million in a leaseback deal with the health provider.

“Blue Shield has decided to consolidate some of its office spaces in the Los Angeles region,” the company said in an email to the Business Journal. “This aligns with Blue Shield’s new hybrid approach to work, which gives employees flexibility to remain working from home much of the time, purposefully using the office space for activities best done in person.”

Though its leaseback with BH runs through July 2023, the company stated it plans to occupy the Long Beach space in May of next year.

Between 1,200 and 1,300 people will work from the new satellite office, according to the company, which remains headquartered in Oakland. Monterey Park employees will relocate to the Long Beach office.

“[Blue Shield] was attracted to the Long Beach area for its diverse, exceptional talent pool,” the company stated, “its central location for LA employee commutes, proximity to the nearby Long Beach airport and many other local amenities.”