Whittier Law School is exploring a sale of its expansive campus in Costa Mesa.
The first American Bar Association-accredited law school in Orange County has put its 14-acre campus on Harbor Boulevard on the market for sale.
The property, across the street from the headquarters of the Automobile Club of California and a few blocks north of the San Diego (I-405) Freeway, is sure to draw interest from potential developers, as well as office investors.
The campus’ low-rise buildings encompass about 126,000 square feet, according to CoStar Group Inc. records, and have attracted interest from developers considering a creative-office conversion, sources tell the Business Journal.
The site includes a good amount of excess land that could hold additional office or retail development, although it’s unclear how much construction the city would allow. Residential development appears unlikely, given the city’s lack of interest in approving new housing projects north of the 405, according to city officials familiar with the proposed sale.
Development there isn’t part of land-use changes being considered in an update of Costa Mesa’s general development plan, which is in the early stages.
The school, part of Whittier College in Los Angeles County, was encouraged to include its campus in the plan update, though it declined to, according to city officials.
A sale time frame or an asking price for the campus hadn’t been disclosed. Brokers with the Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. who are marketing the property didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The law school is aiming to lease back office space at the property through at least May 2018, according to Sharon Herzberger, president of Whittier College.
A long-term school location hadn’t been disclosed. The leaseback would give the school time to explore its options, Herzberger said via email last week.
New Dean
The potential sale comes amid other changes at the private school.
It moved to the then-new Costa Mesa location in 1997 and has recently been lauded for being one of the most diverse law schools in the nation, though it’s faced accreditation challenges in the past decade due to low bar passage rates.
It’s now one of four ABA-accredited law schools based in OC, along with the University of California-Irvine’s law school, Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law in Orange, and Western State College of Law at Argosy University in Fullerton.
Whittier Law School announced on Feb. 17 that it had appointed John Fitzgerald as its interim dean to replace Penelope Bryan, who had been dean since 2009. He’s scheduled to take on the role on March 1.
Fitzgerald is a partner in the intellectual property section of Costa Mesa-based Rutan & Tucker LLP, Orange County’s largest law firm by attorney count. He’s also a graduate of the law school and serves on Whittier College’s board of trustees.
He “brings a businessman’s sensibilities and experience at a time when we are adjusting the law school operations to a smaller school model,” Herzberger said in a statement.
Whittier Law “has been a leader in implementing experiential learning, and installing a Dean who is a legal practitioner serves to cement our reputation as a school that emphasizes outcomes,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.
Busy Area
The potential development at the campus adds to a lengthy list of sites in Costa Mesa north of the 405 that are being considered for commercial projects.
The law school is a few blocks east of the former Los Angeles Times printing plant. L.A.-based real estate developer Kearny Real Estate Co. this month announced plans to convert the property into Orange County’s largest creative-office redevelopment project at a cost of more than $100 million.
The L.A. Times site, at 1375 Sunflower Ave., sits next to the former headquarters of storage equipment-maker Emulex Corp., which is now part of San Jose-based Broadcom Ltd.
Existing buildings at the Emulex campus are being remodeled by new owner SteelWave, a Foster City-based investor and developer. More development could take place on about 3.2 acres at that campus.
