Partner Engineering Completes Major Redo at New HQ

TORRANCE, CA-GlobeSt.com exclusively learns that Partner Engineering & Science Inc. has completed a major renovation to move from its previous El Segundo, CA location to its new headquarters at 2154 Torrance Blvd. in Torrance, CA. The new facility features solar panels, a green roof and energy efficient technologies.

Partner purchased the Torrance building in 2011, just recently settled into their new building, and will celebrate with an open house party this Thursday the 29^th.

The building, which was built in 1960, was somewhat gutted already when it was first purchased by Partner for $2.08 million, but in an eight-month process, the firm stripped it down to the concrete, redid entire interior into office space and TBD tenant spaces, turned the roof into a 3^rd floor housing a conference room and roof deck, and repaved and relandscaped all exterior areas and parking lot.

The building, which had been vacant for 10 years before Partner started looking at it in 2010, is 20,000 square feet, and will house 75 professionals. The firm also has two ground-floor unoccupied tenant spaces that will be filled in the coming months. 

“When we were renting space for our office in San Francisco, South of Market area, the brokers were telling me that converted warehouse space was running at a premium to class A office space in the financial district.  In Torrance we found a building that feels like those converted warehouse spaces in SoMo and it is reflective of our company’s entrepreneurial culture,” says Joseph P Derhake, president of the firm. He tells GlobeSt.com that the total renovation cost was $2.6 million.

Partner was aware from previous Phase I Environmental Site Assessments that there had been an underground storage tank for a diesel generator at the building, as well as a former gas station in the parking lot, that could represent environmental concerns. However, Phase II Subsurface Investigations in both areas indicated that there was no contamination. The company also conducted a structural retrofit of the 60-year-old reinforced concrete building by adding significant steel members. 

The real estate elements were overseen by Michael Steinbach, a staff project manager for the building acquisition. Construction was overseen by one of the firm’s staff construction experts, Michael Gaumond, who is a former developer and construction lender. Partner Energy, an energy consulting firm and the sister company to Partner Engineering and Science, occupies the first floor and is pursuing LEED Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance certification for the building as well as commissioning of the electrical and mechanical systems. Partner Energy designed many of the energy efficient concepts for the building. 

According to the firm, the new headquarters is great for its “rapidly growing staff.” The space is open and collaborative, according to the firm, “which reflects and facilitates our interaction as a team.”  Also, the firm can now say it is practicing what it preaches in terms of implementing as many sustainable and energy efficiency measures as possible with an existing building.

The firm worked closely with a team of people to help make it happen, including HLW Architects and David Swartz who was the project architect. The project was financed by Ben Stone-Walsh with Wells Fargo and through an SBA 504 Loan. Small Business Finance’s Armen Madatyan served as the CDC for the 504 Loan. Madatyan explains that the company did not have to invest as much for a down payment, which “allows them to hold on to their working capital.”

According to Tony Liou, president of Partner Energy, “The building serves as a great platform to showcase different energy efficiency technologies.”