The six-acre campus that once served as the headquarters for Christian media company Trinity Broadcasting Network has inched closer to being converted into a residential development.
The Costa Mesa Planning Commission last month voted in favor of turning the elaborate Trinity Broadcasting building, visible from the San Diego (405) Freeway in Costa Mesa, into a development with 142 residential units. Developer Meritage Homes Corp. (NYSE: MTH) would demolish the palazzo-style structure, at 3150 Bear St., and build 122 units across several four-level structures. The remaining 20 units would be built as two-level detached condominiums.
Seven units would be set aside for very low-income residents, according to a letter from Arizona-based Meritage Homes, the project’s applicant.
Costa Mesa City Council will review the project on Aug. 5 and possibly vote on whether Meritage Homes can break ground or tweak its proposal. The proposed two-story detached condos and four-story stacked flats will range in size from 1,062 square feet for a two-bedroom, two-bath to 2,364 square feet for a four-bedroom, three-bath.
The Business Journal broke the news of the former Trinity Broadcasting Network campus being targeted for housing conversion last year.
The property at 3150 Bear St. in Costa Mesa was zoned for commercial development but would be rezoned for residential use if the City Council approves the proposed project.
Meritage Homes also proposed to include 93,500 square feet of open space for recreational use and public art, according to public documents.
The project would take about two years to complete, according to a Meritage Homes letter submitted to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission.
“Meritage Homes believes that the housing proposed by this new community delivers the type of missing-middle for-sale housing that is desperately needed in the region and to offer the benefits of homeownership to Costa Mesa residents,” the homebuilder said.
Trinity Broadcasting and The Khosbin Co.
The property was originally used for agrarian purposes. Trinity Broadcasting Network, founded in 1973, built the ornate building that served as its headquarters in 1976. The building and campus included film studios, a theater and outdoor parking facilities.
The campus, with its elaborately designed 65,652-square-foot building, is highly visible along the southern edge of the San Diego (405) Freeway, across from South Coast Plaza and near the Bristol Street exit. It gets an estimated 90 million views from passing vehicles annually.
Trinity Broadcasting, a Christian-themed broadcast television network, stopped using the building and campus for its media operations in 2017. Trinity Broadcasting Network is now the D.B.A. of Trinity Broadcasting of Texas Inc., a nonprofit church organization with 501(c)3 status.
The network’s programming is available for streaming on Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku.
Irvine-based commercial real estate firm The Khoshbin Co. bought the Trinity Broadcasting campus in 2021 for $22 million and renamed it The Palazzo by Khoshbin. The company described it as a “magical European-style event venue” on its social media pages.
Education First Properties proposed converting the Trinity Broadcasting property into an “international language campus” in 2019, but that proposal died after the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Manny Khoshbin, chief executive of The Khoshbin Co., originally planned to renovate the campus into a creative space.
Khoshbin then shifted to sell the property to Meritage Homes, which has delivered more than 200,000 homes in its 40-year history. The company, which has a $4.8 billion market cap, says it offers energy efficient and affordable entry-level and first move-up homes.
