Problems of a geologic rather than financial nature were among those that needed to be overcome before property owner Irvine Co. secured a lease renewal by manufacturing tenant AMETEK in one of San Diego’s higher-profile technology corridors.
Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based AMETEK is a global provider of electronic instruments and related industrial components used by companies in aerospace, defense, energy, medicine and increasingly data center operations. Its division in San Diego is known as AMETEK Programmable Power, focused on electrical power components.
Before finalizing terms of a 2025 renewal where the industrial technology firm had called home since 1984 — Canyon Ridge Technology Park in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa neighborhood — brokers said the parties had to solve an engineering challenge tied to the ground underneath the building at 9250 Brown Deer Road.
Deep beneath the building's foundation was a large deposit of gypsum crystals. When exposed to moisture in the ground, these crystals expand and, with nowhere else to go but up, cause the foundation to lift. This phenomenon was first identified and monitored in the 1990s, leading to an initial floor replacement in 1999, according to Irvine Co. and tenant brokers at CBRE.
While that repair served the tenant for 25 years, monitoring later revealed that the geologic forces remained active. Through a collaborative effort involving AMETEK and Irvine Co.'s construction, engineering and leasing teams, a solution was found to provide a stable environment for the tech provider’s sensitive testing and manufacturing equipment.
Irvine Co. averted a tenant relocation by engineering a “floating” structural solution. Its construction team implemented a design that “decouples” the interior floor from the shifting ground underneath. High-precision sensors were used to monitor soil movement while installing structural reinforcements.
The construction team ensured that a newly installed floor could withstand the subterranean crystal growth without affecting the precision of AMETEK’s programmable power supplies. To minimize downtime, the lease was structured to allow for a phased “innovation above and below” approach, in which critical manufacturing remained online while the foundation was systematically replaced.
Because the lease renewal followed numerous complicated steps crucial to securing the space for future use by a prime tenant, a panel of local judges selected the transaction to receive a 2026 CoStar Impact Award for lease of the year for San Diego.
About the transaction: AMETEK renewed a lease for about 88,000 square feet in Irvine Co.'s industrial building at 9250 Brown Deer Road in the Canyon Ridge Technology Park in San Diego.
What the judges said: “This project is the most impactful because it turned a long-standing structural challenge into a long-term win,” said Annika Lile, marketing coordinator for C2 Building Group. “Instead of letting geological issues force a relocation, innovative collaboration and engineering provided a permanent solution that protected their sensitive operations and kept manufacturing fully running.”
“This was not just a simple renewal of real estate,” said Jeff Oesterblad, senior vice president of leasing at development firm IQHQ. “Both the landlord and tenant had to figure out a solution to a problem that could be disastrous to both parties.”
They made it happen: Morgan Rogers with Irvine Co.; Evan Knudson and Scott Miller, tenant representatives at CBRE.