Mike Harrah’s investment in the former assets of the Orange County Register appears to have given the longtime Santa Ana real estate owner, developer and philanthropist a new calling card: local media mogul.
Downtown Santa Ana’s largest real estate owner recently completed the purchase of the 14.3-acre piece of land on Grand Avenue that surrounds the Orange County Register—part of a $34 million buy that landed him a few other key assets of the daily newspaper, including its printing presses.
The deal looks to be the largest investment in an existing property in the city for Harrah and his locally based Caribou Holdings Inc., whose Santa Ana holdings have totaled more than 70 buildings and 5 million square feet over the years.
Harrah’s deal for the Register’s former property followed Denver-based Digital First Media’s $49.8 million purchase of the assets of Freedom Communications Inc.—the parent company of the Register and Press-Enterprise in Riverside—in a hotly contested bankruptcy auction last month.
Harrah backed the Freedom management team in a failed bid to buy the operation but made a separate deal with Digital First once its bid was chosen by the bankruptcy court.
The $34 million asset purchase from Digital First puts Harrah’s investments in the Register site at more than $60 million since 2014. He already owned the five-story 625 N. Grand Ave. office building that held Freedom’s headquarters and still houses the Register’s operations, after paying a reported $27 million for the office two years ago and leasing it back to Freedom under what was initially expected to be a long-term deal.
That lease has since been renegotiated into a short-term deal as a result of the bankruptcy sale.
Harrah’s involvement with Digital First’s operations go well beyond the 14.3 acres of raw developable land just off the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway, thanks to the printing plant, a dozen or so delivery trucks and sundry other assets that came in the deal.
The printing presses have long been used by the Register for its own editions, as well a contract printing business. The Register—one of 11 dailies in Digital First’s newly formed Southern California News Group—previously handled printing for a number of its now-sister publications. Digital First is expected to continue printing multiple dailies in Santa Ana and has leased back the printing facility from Harrah under a deal that should run at least 18 months, he said.
Harrah said he paid Digital Media a little more than $26 million for the land, plus another $8 million or so for the printing presses and other assets.
Officials representing Digital Media declined to comment on the financial terms of their deal with Harrah.
Media Hub
The newspaper operations at the five-story building are being consolidated onto two floors, which Digital First said this month it would be leasing for a year.
Digital First hasn’t announced its office plans beyond the short-term lease deal.
Harrah said he’s looking to turn the building into a media hub of sorts for local companies.
He said he’s talking to other media companies to fill in the vacated space. Television station KDOC/LA 56 already has a studio on the site.
Another possibility is an area community college taking over a good portion of the soon-to-be vacant space at the building, Harrah said last week.
Towers Envisioned
Harrah said he anticipates his latest investment will look like a bargain once the land he now owns on Grand Avenue gets entitled for new development.
The site has been eyed by Harrah and other real estate companies for a variety of development options—including single-family homes, apartments, condo towers and other uses—over the past few years, but no plans have been formally submitted to the city for approval.
The site’s central Orange County location and its proximity to the 5 and Costa Mesa (55) freeways, as well as other main thoroughfares, make the land an enviable site on OC’s development landscape.
Harrah has proposed a mixed-use development incorporating a pair of 30-story towers holding condos and hotel rooms just off the freeway, and a midrise apartment complex on the southern edge of the land.
The portion of property now holding the printing plant, meanwhile, could be converted into a retail development running more than 200,000 square feet under Harrah’s plan.
The entire project, as now envisioned, could run more than 800,000 square feet, according to documents from Caribou Industries.
Initial feedback from various city officials has been positive, although it remains to be seen if the two-tower plan will be downsized to a midrise project based on the city’s comments and recommendations, according to Harrah.
He said he’s optimistic that he can get the necessary city approvals for the property by the end of the year.
The development plans come as Harrah is still finalizing an anchor tenant for his One Broadway project in the city.
That 37-story building, which has been on the books for more than a decade, would be OC’s tallest when built. Harrah said he’s now planning to break ground for that $350 million project in September.
The office project needs to be 50% preleased before it can break ground; a variety of technology, government and legal firms have been rumored as potential anchor tenants in recent years.
