Defense contractor exchanges one East County city for another

Simi Valley is losing one of its marquee employers. AeroVironment, the drone and defense technology company that has anchored the city's east-side industrial corridors for years, announced Aug. 24 that it has purchased 20 acres in Moorpark for a consolidated campus — a $100 million investment that will eventually pull nearly all of the company's local operations out of Simi Valley.

But the departure comes with a counterweight: mortgage lender PennyMac, whose Moorpark offices sit on part of the land AeroVironment bought, is planning to move its operation into Simi Valley — a relocation city officials say could bring roughly 1,000 to 1,200 jobs with it.

The Simi Valley Acorn, which first reported the story, described the swap as one East County city trading places with another: Moorpark gains the defense giant's future; Simi Valley absorbs a major financial-services employer whose specific destination in the city has not yet been disclosed because lease negotiations are ongoing.

A consolidation years in the making

AeroVironment's growth has outpaced its real estate. The company currently leases space spread across five locations in Simi Valley and Moorpark — about 280,000 square feet in Simi Valley alone, plus roughly 150,000 square feet in Moorpark, according to its fiscal 2026 annual report. The Simi Valley leases expire between 2027 and 2030, a timeline that made consolidation increasingly urgent.

The new campus will sit directly across the street from AeroVironment's existing Moorpark facility at 14501 Princeton Ave. Brian Chong, a spokesperson for the City of Moorpark, told the Acorn the site includes the building currently occupied by PennyMac at 6101 Condor Drive and a vacant lot to the south, which the company plans to renovate and develop.

Company spokesperson Deb Richardson said the campus will house the existing workforce and leave "room for future growth," with employees working in research, engineering, design, prototyping and production. Construction and renovation are expected to begin in fiscal 2028, with employees transitioning in phases and full operations expected in 2029 — meaning AeroVironment's Simi Valley presence will fade gradually rather than disappear overnight.

Why the company is growing so fast

The expansion is backed by striking numbers. AeroVironment reported $1.98 billion in revenue for fiscal 2026 — up 141% from the prior year — along with $2.7 billion in bookings and $1.2 billion in funded backlog, according to the Acorn. The company forecasts fiscal 2027 revenue between $2.125 billion and $2.225 billion.

That surge has been fueled in part by the company's $4.1 billion acquisition of BlueHalo in May 2025 and continued growth in its autonomous-systems business. AeroVironment, which employs about 4,000 people worldwide, was founded in Monrovia more than five decades ago and is now headquartered in Arlington, Virginia — though Simi Valley served as its headquarters from 2018 to 2021, a point of local pride the city is now losing.

The company's products are far from obscure. The U.S. Department of Defense is its largest customer, and AeroVironment has supplied hundreds of drones to Ukraine. It also helped develop NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which flew on Mars from 2021 to 2024, and builds agricultural drones used to monitor wildfires and other disasters — a line of work with obvious relevance to Ventura County residents.

Chief Operating Officer Rob Smith said the unified campus will reduce the friction of operating across multiple sites and let the company move faster from concept to delivering systems to military customers. Chairman, president and CEO Wahid Nawabi framed the $100 million investment as a reaffirmation of the company's commitment to California. Moorpark Mayor Chris Enegren called the growth "tremendous news" for his city's standing as a technology hub.

Simi Valley's response: disappointment, and a candid council exchange

The loss stung at Simi Valley City Hall. At the Aug. 24 City Council meeting — held the same day AeroVironment made its announcement — City Manager Samantha Argabrite acknowledged the mixed feelings.

"Obviously it's disappointing to lose them to a neighboring community but grateful that jobs will stay local," Argabrite said, according to the Acorn. She said the city will work to backfill the vacancies AeroVironment leaves behind, and she pointed to PennyMac's inbound relocation as a meaningful offset, noting Simi Valley will benefit from those jobs during the years AeroVironment is still operating in town. She also noted that employees who remain in Simi Valley will face a longer commute once work shifts to Moorpark.

The meeting produced one pointed exchange. Anthony Thompson, a candidate for Simi Valley City Council District 1, questioned whether the city had done enough to keep AeroVironment or find a workable campus site within city limits. Councilmember Rocky Rhodes pushed back.

"Your frustration is not wrong. We hate to lose that company from our community," Rhodes said, "but to imply that we were somehow inadequate in our attempts to get them to stay, I think is disingenuous."

What it means for residents

For Simi Valley residents, the practical effects will unfold slowly. AeroVironment employs nearly 1,000 people across its Simi Valley and Moorpark sites, and the transition isn't expected to complete until 2029. In the near term, nothing changes — and the city gains time to market roughly 280,000 square feet of soon-to-be-vacant industrial and office space in a region where defense and aerospace tenants remain in demand.

The bigger question is the long-term one: whether PennyMac's arrival, potentially bringing up to 1,200 jobs, fully offsets the loss of a company with AeroVironment's profile — a defense innovator with deep local roots and a Mars helicopter on its résumé. City officials are betting it comes close, and residents will be watching the vacancy signs on the east side for proof.