Allen says that Kofax, although a British company, maintains its global headquarters in Irvine. Part of the reason for the expansion is that a number of Kofax managers who had been stationed in other offices will now be in the new headquarters in Irvine, where Kofax is scheduled to relocate in April.

Kofax had its choice of a number of prospective new locations because of the large blocks of space available in the Irvine submarket, Allen notes. Part of the appeal of 15211 Laguna Canyon Rd. is that it was one of the few shell buildings available, which will allow Kofax to build out the interior of the building with the kind of open, collaborative space that it seeks for its new headquarters.

Another plus for Kofax in the move to 15211 Laguna Canyon Rd. is that the company will get free office furniture as part of the deal. Allen explains that the Irvine Co. and a number of other office building owners in Orange County have furniture left behind in their buildings by failed financial services firms and are willing to include the furniture at no cost as one of the bargaining chips in attracting tenants.

The office furniture that Kofax will inherit, which Allen describes as high-quality and very lightly used, is from a failed financial services company in Irvine. The only cost to Kofax will be the expense of relocating the furniture into its new building.

Terms of the Kofax lease were not disclosed. Published asking rates for comparable space in the Irvine Spectrum range from $1.75 to $1.85 per square foot per month, triple-net.

A Kofax announcement regarding the relocation to 15211 Laguna Canyon Rd. says that the move "allows us to expand our operations at a per-square-foot cost of less than what we currently pay at our existing facility." Kofax develops and markets automated systems for managing the exchange of business information in paper, fax and electronic formats for customers in financial services, manufacturing, retail, government, healthcare and other businesses.