Seal Beach-based Harbor Associates LLC announced this week it sold a vacant 111,483-square-foot office building in Santa Ana for $19.2 million.
The five-floor office building at 2020 E. First Street, Santa Ana, was sold to Arizona-based Meritage Homes, a publicly traded homebuilder.
Harbor Associates and the city of Santa Ana worked to re-entitle the property and convert it from commercial to residential use. The Seal Beach-based commercial real estate company has since earned approvals to convert the office building property into a residential development with 86 townhomes. The residences would be a mix of two-, three-, four-bedroom and live/work units.
“The COVID pandemic changed the way users live and work. Our recent adaptive reuse business plans are reflective of markets that have an excess supply of office inventory, but are dramatically undersupplied for housing, industrial and life science uses,” Harbor Principal Paul Miszkowicz said in a statement. “We anticipate more change in the built environment over the next 10 years than in the previous 30 years combined and are prepared to meet the needs of our local communities head on.”
