Ford Motor Co. is shutting down its West Coast design studio in Orange County as it shifts work to a new electric vehicle development hub in Long Beach, a company spokeswoman said Thursday, July 17.
The automaker recently filed a notice with California’s Employment Development Department indicating layoffs might take place as it runs out the lease at 3 Glen Bell Way, the studio’s longtime home off the 5 freeway at Irvine Spectrum Center.
The facility’s closure was mentioned in the EDD filing, which is part of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — commonly referred to as WARN. Notifications are required when an employer lays off more than 50 employees.
Marlina Frederick, human resources director for Ford in Long Beach, wrote in the June 30 letter to EDD that the Irvine studio is closing Nov. 30, which could result in as many as 263 job cuts as workers shift to locations in Long Beach and Dearborn, Michigan.
All employees working in Irvine were offered employment in either city, Frederick said.
Bergg said not everyone agreed to the offer, with “several employees” electing not to relocate. Their employment with Ford will end Aug 31, she said. Employees who remained in Southern California were due to start work in the Long Beach office by early July, she added.
“This new facility is enabling us to move the majority of our locally based design team there when the lease for our studio location in Irvine expires later this year,” said Bergg. She declined to say whether the Long Beach development facility has opened, or how many workers are there now.
A year ago, Ford’s Doug Field, chief of EVs and digital and design officer, said the company was coming to Long Beach, leasing a 250,000-square-foot facility with room for 450 employees in the Douglas business park, adjacent to the Long Beach Airport.
The research-and-development team at the Ford Electric Vehicle Development Center is being led by Alan Clarke. Before joining Ford in January 2022, Clarke was director of new programs engineering at Tesla.
The 87,639-square-foot Ford Building at 3 Glen Bell Way is being marketed for lease by the brokerage Avison Young.
For years, the parking lot shared by Ford, Mazda and Taco Bell hosted Cars and Coffee on Saturdays. The event grew so popular, with hundreds of car enthusiasts rolling out their new and classic vehicles, organizers were forced to cancel it in 2014. A similar show called South OC Cars And Coffee takes place every Saturday at the Outlets at San Clemente.
Ford and its Lincoln brand have a storied history in California, rooted in Orange County’s automotive industry for decades.
Along with the workforce transition, Bergg said that the focus of Lincoln automobile design will be based in Michigan at a new design center within Ford’s Dearborn research and engineering campus.