FOOTHILL RANCH, CA-Patient-monitoring provider Nihon Kohden America has completed the expansion of its now-51,000-square-foot build-to-suit facility at 90 Icon here, located in Irvine's Technology Corridor, reports 4-traders. The firm has achieved double-digit growth over the past decade and had outgrown its previous facility.

The expansion has allowed the firm to hire additional staff to support its growth plans and includes a showroom that will display solutions from all of its product lines including monitoring, neurology and cardiology. Also, the expanded facility offers a training center to host regular customer education and training sessions.

4-traders also reports that the operations center is strategically located in the center of Orange County's booming medical equipment market. Recent studies show that more than half of the county's $9.5 billion in economic activity for the year was directly related to the medical-equipment field.

As GlobeSt.com reported in April, the demand for high-image office/R&D space in Orange County has increased. At that time, Jones Lang LaSalle's Wade Clark and Joe Bevan had represented the landlord in the lease agreement between joint venture Hines and Oaktree Capital Management L.P. and Kulicke & Soffa, a manufacturer of semiconductor and LED assembly equipment, for 66,538 square feet of high-image office/R&D space at 1821 E. Dyer Rd. at Irvine Corporate Center in Santa Ana. Clark told GlobeSt.com that mainly high-tech and medical-instrument companies are seeking this space. “Parking is a limitation on most office/R&D properties. Most financial-service organizations are trying to minimize the square-foot-per-person ratio, which does not work well for properties that have three- or 3.5-per-1,000-square-foot parking ratios.”