A Southern California creative office campus that was headed toward residential redevelopment is the latest addition to a defense upstart's portfolio of workplaces.
Anduril Industries leased the entirety of The Hive, a three-building campus in Costa Mesa. The government contractor inked a long-term lease to secure all 187,827 square feet across 3333, 3335 and 3337 Susan St. in October. The deal has earned a 2026 CoStar Impact Award for lease of the year, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
The lease marks one of the region's largest office commitments in 2025, and it marks a significant expansion to Anduril's already massive footprint in the area: The firm's corporate hub is next door at The Press, a repurposed printing plant. With the addition of The Hive, the defense firm's presence in Costa Mesa now spans some 650,000 square feet, anchoring a growing corporate infrastructure that supports the company’s engineering, development and manufacturing operations.
The Hive itself was built in the early 2000s and underwent a series of pre‑pandemic upgrades that brought modern creative office features, improved common areas and enhanced indoor‑outdoor connectivity to the campus. Alongside its three buildings, the property includes roughly 3 acres of undeveloped land. It previously served as the headquarters and a training site for the Los Angeles Chargers.
In the years leading up to Anduril's tenancy, though, plans for a residential redevelopment of the site were underway. The entitlement processes for that project were tabled by ownership to accommodate Anduril's expansion needs. It's a pivot that reflects a broader trend in the county, where select areas are showing resilience due to expansions by high‑growth tenants with strong credit.
Anduril's lease was finalized the same day that The Hive was acquired by Drawbridge Realty, a KKR investment arm. The San Francisco-based firm purchased the office campus for just under $78 million.
About the project: The Hive includes a 3-acre undeveloped parcel, making it one of the few campuses with meaningful room for expansion in Costa Mesa's constrained office submarket.
What the judges said: "Anduril Industries now leases close to 1.5 million square feet of commercial space in Orange County. They are one of Orange County's largest tenants as well as one of its most visible companies from an international perspective," said Brian Childs, executive managing director at NAI Capital Commercial.
"The decision to pause a planned residential redevelopment to accommodate Anduril’s expansion shows great capacity to pivot when impact matters," said Jillian Sabaugh, president and broker at Ukropina Sabaugh.
"Within my client base I have 10+ companies that are in the OEM or support chain building things for Anduril. Talent comes to the OC because of Anduril. Spin-off companies will be created. Other buildings are leased or sold because of Anduril," said John Collins, senior vice president and principal at Voit Real Estate Services.
They made it happen: The deal was overseen by Jay Nugent and George Thomson, executive managing directors at Newmark, as well as Tucker Hughes, managing partner at Hughes Marino.