FDIC Reportedly to Rent Space at Fluor : Agency to Join Avco as Tenant in Sprawling, Irvine Complex

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s bank liquidation division is in line to become the second major tenant to rent space in Fluor Corp.’s massive engineering compound in Irvine, The Times learned Monday.

The government agency currently rents three large buildings in a sprawling commercial complex in Costa Mesa to house the 300 employees of its Southern California bank liquidation office but is planning to add 100 employees and has run out of room, agency officials have said.

Officials at Fluor and the FDIC could not be reached for comment Monday evening, but sources said the agency is negotiating to lease about 100,000 square feet in one arm of Fluor’s four-story engineering complex and will move out of its Costa Mesa offices.

The FDIC is expanding its staff to handle the workload it already is shouldering after liquidating a dozen failed Southland banks and because it anticipates several additional Southern California bank failures this year.

Fluor, which made a meager $1-million profit in fiscal 1984 and just reported a $32.6-million loss for the first quarter of fiscal 1985, is leasing out space in its engineering facilities--vacated because of layoffs and hiring freezes--in an effort to increase revenues.

The giant engineering, construction and natural resources company last week signed an agreement to lease 210,000 square feet in its engineering building to Avco Financial Services, the consumer finance arm of Avco Corp. of Greenwich, Conn. Avco Financial recently sold its Newport Center headquarters building to the Irvine Co. for $45 million.

A Fluor spokesman said when the Avco lease was announced that Fluor had about 100,000 square feet of space left to rent--exactly the amount reportedly being leased by the FDIC.