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Harrah Eyes Office Conversion, Hotel in Santa Ana

Big Mike” Harrah doesn’t do small when it comes to development plans in Santa Ana.

I wrote last week on Harrah’s redevelopment proposal for the 14 acres he now owns around the North Grand Avenue headquarters of the Orange County Register—a building he also owns—just off the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway.

His Caribou Industries has proposed a massive mixed-use development project of about 875,000 square feet.

The developer’s plans call for a pair of 30-story condo towers, with one tower incorporating a hotel, along with a shopping center, midrise apartments, and other uses.

Harrah, who paid $34 million for the land and other assets of the newspaper about a month ago, said he’s optimistic he can get city approvals for the development in order to start on it by the end of the year.

It’s not the only big proposal he has in the works in downtown Santa Ana, a market where he’s owned more than 70 buildings and 5 million square feet of space over the years.

I got a glimpse of plans for a handful of other major developments the company has proposed at a meeting two weeks ago at Caribou’s headquarters in a historic home next to the land that is slated to hold the company’s One Broadway Plaza office tower project a couple of miles from the Register.

Among the more notable projects are the conversion of his 888 N. Main St. office tower into an apartment property in what would be one of the largest residential-focused adaptive reuse projects of its type in the area.

The 10-story office, built in 1967, is about 114,000 square feet. It had long been occupied by Orange County Social Services, which signed a deal a little more than a year ago to relocate to the 14-story Orange Center Tower near Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

The largest rental units that would be built in the Main Street project would run a little more than 1,000 square feet, according to the developer’s latest plans. For-sale units and live-work units also have been considered for the building.

Also being proposed is a 12-story hotel on Broadway that would serve business travelers working at One Broadway Plaza if that office project proceeds. The long-awaited tower would be Orange County’s largest building when built.

Harrah said he’s close to finalizing a major lease that can get the $350 million development going and that he’s targeted September for construction to start.

Hensel Phelps has been selected as the general contractor for it, according to Harrah, and McCarthy Building Companies Inc. would be the general contractor of the nearly 1-million-square-foot parking structure that would be built for the tower.

Aliso Sale

Journey Business Park, a two-building office park in Aliso Viejo that’s about a mile south of the 73 Toll Road, has sold for $14 million.

Torrance-based Wilson Journey LLC paid about $231 per square foot for the 60,648-square-foot multitenant property in a deal brokered by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Gary Allen and Douglas Mathews.

The buyer is an affiliate of Don Wilson Builders, a Torrance-based real estate company that has a Newport Beach location.

The seller is listed in property records as LL & DM Investments LLC in Huntington Beach.

Fight Night

The biggest annual networking event of Orange County’s commercial real estate industry takes place this week.

The Southern California chapter of commercial real estate development group NAIOP is holding its annual “Night at the Fights” event Thursday at Hotel Irvine. Tickets are $650 per person.

About 1,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event, which includes a pair of boxing matches and two MMA bouts.

This year’s theme is Celebracion Cinco de Mayo, and the night’s festivities will feature a live mariachi band, NAIOP said.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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