Epson America, Inc. announced today that it is relocating its headquarters and nearly 600 jobs from the Kilroy Airport Center at Long Beach Airport – where it has been based since 2000 – to the adjacent city of Los Alamitos in West Orange County.  The move for the global technology company is scheduled for the summer of 2020.

Epson’s move is not a surprise. During an August 2017 interview with the Business Journal, President Keith Kratzberg said that, with its lease expiring in a couple of years, the company was looking at options for future expansion.

“We have been growing, so we are trying to assess what’s the best way to meet our space requirements,” he said in that interview. “We are looking at all the possibilities – remodeling this location, building another location, moving to another facility. We are looking at everything. But we need more space, is the main thing.”

In the end, whatever option won out would come down to “the numbers,” he noted. Epson currently occupies a five-story building with about 136,000 square feet of space.

Long Beach city officials made several efforts to keep Epson in Long Beach. The Business Journal confirmed that Epson officials did a walk through of the interim port headquarters at 4801 Airport Plaza Dr. – which the port staff is vacating in a few months.  According to John Keisler, the city’s director of economic development, meetings to assist Epson with its expansion plans began in February 2017. “We met more than a half dozen times with Epson’s executive team,” Keisler told the Business Journal, adding that the city executed an exclusive negotiating agreement with the company for a sizeable portion of property by the airport.

Epson’s Los Alamitos lease includes two buildings at 3131 Katella Ave. on the east side of the 605 Freeway. It presents the company with its own campus, which, according to leasing agents, was a high priority. Built in 1971 and renovated in 2018, the buildings provide approximately 150,000 square feet of space.

“This is an exciting time for Epson America, and considerable thought went into making this strategic decision. Ultimately, ensuring that our employees have the world-class facilities necessary to continue to innovate, compete, and build careers was our top priority,” Kratzberg said in a press release “Being part of the Long Beach business community for more than 20 years has been terrific, and on behalf of all Epson employees, I’d like to thank the Long Beach City government and our business and residential neighbors. We look forward to the next chapter in our growth with the Los Alamitos and the Orange County community with the new headquarters facility.”

According to the announcement, “The new campus in Los Alamitos will broadly incorporate Epson’s latest business solutions, including digital signage, laser projection, enterprise workgroup, and large format printers. The new space also allows Epson opportunities to further its commitment to environmental sustainability through EV recharging stations and increased efficiency in systems throughout the buildings, as well as employee wellness through spaces dedicated to employee collaboration, rest, focus, and fitness.”

 

Editor’s note: The original version of this story indicated the new headquarters would be on the west side of the 605 Freeway. It is on the east side.