Edwards Lifesciences Corp., the second largest public company in Orange County, is looking to expand its headquarters again.
The expansion calls for the Irvine medical device maker to modify its master plan and expand its existing campus by adding 2,340 square feet to a 95,745-square-foot warehouse at 17192 Daimler St. in Irvine.
Edwards Lifesciences also proposes increasing its Irvine campus footprint from 1,136,038 to 1,234,123 square feet.
The modification, which requires a zoning change, was recommended by the Irvine Planning Commission on June 26.
Edwards Lifesciences manufactures heart valves and other similar medical devices at its 45-acre headquarters in Irvine. The campus features more than one million square feet of space across 14 buildings for office, laboratory, manufacturing and warehouse uses.
The medical device maker originally planned to demolish a 95,745-square-foot structure, called the Partners Building, according to public documents.
An Edwards spokesperson, however, told the Business Journal that the company reversed course and now seeks to keep the building.
The change in plans was reflected in the Irvine Planning Commission’s June 26 agenda.
“ELS proposes to continue with the approved phases, with the following changes: maintain the Partners Building on-site, expand a warehouse building, and change land uses in some of the existing buildings,” Irvine city staff told planning commissioners in a report.
The Partners Building features 56,933 square feet of office space, 36,825 square feet of warehouse and 1,988 square feet of manufacturing.
Edwards would build a 2,340-square-foot extension of the warehouse space, according to Irvine city staff.
The Planning Commission’s recommendation moves on to the Irvine City Council for a final decision.
Edwards Lifesciences Expansion
Edwards Lifesciences was founded in 1958 and has since grown to become one of the world’s leading medical device companies. The Irvine-based company, named after Miles “Lowell” Edwards, was bought by Baxter International Inc. in 1985 and spun off as its own entity in 2000.
Its breakthrough product is an aortic heart valve that could be implanted without requiring open-heart surgery.
The company launched in 2019 a $239 million expansion of its then-650,000-square-foot multibuilding campus on Red Hill Avenue in Irvine. The expansion added about 500,000 square feet of office, research and manufacturing space.
Edwards added two office and lab buildings – one rising three stories and the other, four – and a two-floor structure with a conference center and dining facilities.
Also on the campus are two 30,000-gallon tanks and are used for Irvine’s first-ever commercial rainwater harvesting system.
There are an estimated 5,000 people working at the Irvine headquarters, according to Edwards. The 10-acre land used for the expansion was acquired by Edwards in 2018.
Edwards is now in its first full year as a “purely structural heart company,” selling off its critical care business last September.
The heart valve manufacturer ranked first on the Business Journal’s list of medical device makers, which was published in April.
Shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) are up more 5% since Jan. 1.
The listing removal was juxtaposed against Edwards Lifesciences gaining approval of a valve replacement system by Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving the medical device maker’s therapy for asymptomatic patients.