This week, the County of Orange, Griffin Structures, LPA, Swinerton Builders, and our project partners gathered to celebrate the ribbon cutting of this highly anticipated second component to the County of Orange Civic Center as part of a 20-year master plan developed and managed by Griffin Structures. Intended to improve the County’s operational efficiency by unifying departments in a central, all-service facility, the Administration North and sister building to the recently completed Administration South encompasses over 500,000 SF and marks the completion of the County’s new state-of-the-art synergetic civic center campus serving the Orange County community.

The planned occupants for this significant facility include Board of Supervisor offices, the Board of Supervisor Board Hearing Room, and departments currently occupying Buildings 10 and 12. A new plaza will also be featured between-and-around the newly constructed Buildings 14 and 16. The Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) will feature a transit plaza in the future will be in between and around the newly constructed County Administration South and North buildings. The TOD project will be bordered by a transit plaza and light rail transit stop to the south, service and pedestrian paseo to the east, a central courtyard to the north, and a reinvigorated, pedestrian-friendly street to the west.

“Our team’s challenge was to design and construct a civic administrative BD campus  that combined high quality, durability, and a long life with minimal maintenance while adhering to a modest overall budget and tight timelines ” says Deryl Robinson, Senior Program and Construction Manager with Griffin Structures. From the outset, the primary design objective was to create a beautiful and resilient building that would be efficient and operational for generations to come. The designers chose precast concrete because they knew it would deliver the desired durability and timeless appearance that the client was seeking—while staying within their budget.

This $400M project was successfully delivered utilizing Progressive Public-Private Partnership (P3) delivery.  Griffin Structures, working with LPA Architects and Swinerton Builders, designed, built, and delivered the turn-key project using tax-exempt financing and a long-term lease structure.  The benefits of utilizing a P3 structure include, not only improved service delivery and cost effectiveness, but also reduced public sector risk, faster delivery, improved budget certainty, and several additional considerations.

For over 40 years, Griffin Structures has provided demonstrated leadership for virtually all aspects of real estate development, project finance, and construction. We offer specialized expertise in both the conceptualization and realization of complex and challenging projects, including forward planning, finance, entitlements, project delivery methodologies, and community-based participatory planning: all critical to success in today’s complex political and economic environments.

Useful information pertaining to Public-Private Partnerships can also be found here. Interested in learning more? Get in touch with us today via our Contact page or LinkedIn.

To view the most recent drone footage of the County of Orange Civic Center, visit the link here.