The Irvine Company is in escrow to buy two downtown San Diego office towers, the San Diego Daily Transcript reported.
The Newport Beach-based real estate company is looking to buy the SBC and NBC buildings in downtown San Diego, according to the report.
An Irvine Co. spokesman declined to comment on the story.
The buildings are expected to sell in the $130 million range, or $330 per square foot.
The Irvine Co. already owns two San Diego office towers. In 2004, it paid $148 million for the 472,000-square-foot Wells Fargo Plaza, or $314 per square foot. In 2003, it bought the 570,383-square-foot Symphony Towers building for $134 million, or $235 per square foot.
The company owns other real estate in San Diego County.
The sale could involve two of Southern California’s richest men: Donald Bren, chairman and owner of the Irvine Co., and Ernest Rady, chairman of San Diego’s American Assets Inc., which currently owns the two buildings.
Bren topped the Business Journal’s list of the wealthiest people in Orange County last year, while Rady was No. 2.
Rady lives in La Jolla but derives the bulk of his wealth from Irvine-based Westcorp Inc., where he’s chief executive.
The Irvine Co. has been looking to expand its office holdings. In May, the company bought the Irvine campus of Verizon Wireless for an estimated $140 million, or $308 per square foot.
