Encore Capital Group is thefirst tenant to sign a lease at Ampersand, a 340,000-square-footcreative office conversion project in the former San DiegoUnion-Tribune building. The Casey Brown Co. isrepurposing the property into a creative office campus with ampleamenities and outdoor space. While the developer wasn't targeting aspecific industry for the project, the financial company's interestillustrates the increasing interest for highly amenitized anddesigned office space across industry types. Encore signed a95,000-square-foot ground floor lease in the project.

“We all like to be able to put things in a box, but we werereally trying to attract tenants that have a focus on productivityand on the health and wellness of their employees,” CaseyBrown, principal of The Casey Brown Co, tells GlobeSt.com.“That is the real reason why a tenant would choose Ampersand astheir home. They need to be companies that have that focus, andthere are economic reasons for that. When you lose an employee, itcosts money to replace them. This is a project where employees willbe proud of and that guests will be in awe of.”

Encore is the first tenant in the project and will likely be thelargest as well. “I'm not surprised that a tenant of 100,000 squarefeet leased the space,” adds Brown. “Our vision is that there willbe 10 to 15 tenants in this project, and those might range from100,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet.”