Cigna Corp. is looking to sell half of its stake in an office complex where another high-rise is planned, according to real estate sources.
The Irvine Company is said to be among the bidders, according to two sources close to the deal who asked not to be named.
Philadelphia-based Cigna, one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers and a real estate investor, is looking for an equal partner in the 900,000-square-foot Irvine Center Towers, according to sources.
Irvine Center Towers includes four black 11-story office high-rises and a Prego Ristorante.
The healthcare insurer owns about 80% of Irvine Center Towers. Houston-based Transwestern Commercial Services owns the rest and manages the site.
Transwestern, which didn’t return calls for comment, could be bought out in a sale, sources said.
Some brokers said Cigna could do two deals ,selling half a stake in the existing buildings at Irvine Center Towers and then selling a 50% stake in the proposed tower.
Plans call for putting up a 230,000-square-foot office building at Irvine Center Towers. It’s unclear what a sale by Cigna or a Transwestern buyout would mean for the planned tower.
A new investor with Cigna likely would handle construction of the tower, as well as management and leasing for all of Irvine Center Towers.
The existing high-rises at Von Karman Avenue and Michelson Drive combined are valued at about $280 million, or roughly $315 per square foot, according to brokers.
Other office towers near John Wayne Airport have sold for as much as $370 per square foot. But the Irvine Center Towers buildings are older and less ritzy, brokers said.
Land for the planned tower could be worth as much as $12 million, brokers said. The proposed tower could be valued at $370 per square foot, minus the cost to build it.
Transwestern officials earlier said it would cost around $70 million to build the tower.
Along with the Irvine Co., Washington, D.C.-based CarrAmerica Realty Corp. could bid for a stake in Irvine Center Towers.
CarrAmerica owns a five-story office building at 17911 Von Karman.
The Irvine Co., which declined comment, typically owns buildings by itself. The Newport Beach-based company could share the campus with Cigna in the short term, with an eye to taking full ownership in the future, according to sources.
Last year the Irvine Co. bid top dollar for another key property near John Wayne Airport but lost out on the sale.
Law firm Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear LLP ended up buying the building after exercising its right to match the highest bid on the 14-story tower it occupies at 2040 Main St.
Brokers said the 308,000-square-foot Knobbe tower sold for $315 to $325 per square foot, one of the highest prices paid here last year.
Transwestern last month razed a former restaurant at Irvine Center Towers to make way for the planned office building.
In 2000, Cigna hired Transwestern to take over management and leasing of Irvine Center Towers, with an eye to raising rents, according to Transwestern’s Web site.
At the time, the towers’ rents were below other top office buildings around the airport.
Transwestern did some maintenance and bolstered energy efficiency, according to its Web site.
Irvine Center Towers now is 95% full and is the headquarters of business software maker Epicor Software Corp. and New Century Financial Corp., one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders.
New York’s Pfizer Inc. and other companies have space there.
The center is set to lose New Century in 2007, when the lender plans to move into a proposed 20-story office tower in nearby Park Place.
New Century is consolidating from several locations around the county. It leases about 60,000 square feet at Irvine Center Towers.
