The Chargers have agreed to lease part of a Costa Mesa office campus and are working with city officials to secure permits for practice fields at the location in anticipation of relocating to Los Angeles.

The Chargers have confirmed they will use The Hive and 3.2 nearby acres as their headquarters and training and practices facilities should team owner Dean Spanos decide to relocate the franchise from San Diego to the Los Angeles market and a $2.66 billion stadium being built by Rams owner Stan Kroenke in Inglewood.

Spanos must decide by Jan. 15 whether to remain in San Diego or exercise an option to join the Rams in the Inglewood stadium, which is scheduled to for the 2019 season. If the Chargers opt to remain in San Diego the Raiders would then have the option to relocate to Los Angeles and play in the stadium located on a 298-acre development on the former site of the Hollywood Park racetrack.

Spanos said he will not decide until after the Chargers’ final game Jan. 1 against Kansas City. But the lease deal and pursuit of the permits in Costa Mesa are the clearest indication to date of the direction many NFL officials believe Spanos to be leaning.

NFL owners last January approved the Chargers joining the Rams in Inglewood. The owners earlier this month signed off on a lease between the Chargers and the Rams for the Inglewood stadium. The league’s ratification followed the November defeat by San Diego voters of a ballot measure that would have funded a proposed downtown stadium and convention center complex by raising the city’s hotel tax.

Four San Diego City Council members have recently proposed a 99-year lease deal in which the Chargers would pay $1 per year to play in Qualcomm Stadium, their home since 1967. The council members have shared their proposal with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and league owners in a last-ditch effort to keep the franchise in San Diego, the team’s home since the 1961 season.

Should the Chargers move, their new office and training base would be at 3333 South Susan St. in Costa Mesa, adjacent to the 405 freeway. While Spanos is expected to review several sites to serve as the team’s permanent office and training complex in the Los Angeles-Orange County market, the Costa Mesa complex will receive major consideration as the Chargers’ long-term base. The Chargers would also have offices at the Inglewood facility.

The lease with the Hive would be terminated should Spanos decide to stay in San Diego.

“On behalf of the Costa Mesa City Council and our entire community, we are elated that the Chargers organization has selected Costa Mesa, the City of the Arts, as their new home if the LA stadium option is exercised,” Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley said in a statement to the Register. “ … The City understands that this is a difficult and significant decision for Mr. Dean Spanos but Costa Mesa is prepared to graciously welcome his organization and his family of employees as they make us their home for their new headquarters, practice and training facility. Welcome to Costa Mesa.”

Billed as a “next generation work-space” and located not far from John Wayne Airport, the Hive is owned and a managed by Steel Wave, a Foster City-based commercial, residential and mixed-use real estate management, operating company and investment management firm. The Chargers’ lease is for the use of Building C, a two-story structure with 101,831 rentable square footage. The Chargers are also seeking permits with Costa Mesa to develop practice fields on adjacent land.

Spanos’ decision next month follows the franchise’s 15-year pursuit of a viable option to an aging Qualcomm Stadium. The Chargers have spent more than $20 million and studied nine stadium options, including a proposed venue that would have been shared with the Raiders in Carson. For more than a decade Qualcomm has needed in excess of $200 million in deferred maintenance, the Chargers told NFL officials and owners, according to league documents obtained by the Register.

This is the second time in less than a year Spanos has looked at creating an office and training base in Orange County. Last January the Chargers submitted a plan with the City of Santa Ana for an interim practice facility and team headquarters had Spanos decided to relocate to Inglewood prior to the 2016 season. Instead Spanos decided to stay in San Diego and pursue the ballot measure.

Contact the writer: sreid@scng.com