A Pasadena-based real estate investment and development company has taken over ownership of Trinity Broadcasting Network’s iconic campus in Costa Mesa and is evaluating leasing and development options at the 6.2-acre site.
Alliance South Coast Properties LLC, a recently formed venture that has one other Southern California property in its portfolio, this month closed on the purchase of the Bear Street campus of the Christian-focused network.
The site sits on the southern edge of the San Diego (405) Freeway across from South Coast Plaza and is one of the most recognizable properties in Orange County.
The ornate property is best known for its elaborate light show that used to run over the holidays.
Trinity Broadcasting had owned it for a little more than 20 years after paying a reported $6 million for the site. It vacated it this year and now runs its local operations out of Tustin.
The new owner is “exploring leasing options,” according to Alliance South Coast Development Manager Randy Lim.
“It’s a great purchase for us,” he said. “It could serve as a single-tenant property, (but it) also has development potential.”
2 March Sales
The property, whose three-story building is about 65,000 square feet, sold for a little under $20 million, according to real estate sources familiar with the transaction.
It was the second sale of the building this month. Irvine-based Greenlaw Partners bought it directly from Trinity Broadcasting, and shortly after the deal closed, Greenlaw sold it for a slight profit to Alliance South Coast.
Trinity officials said in a statement that the sale to Greenlaw will “provide the network with new options that are targeted at millennials as well as a diverse and changing culture.”
The network’s operations include nearly three dozen 24-hour networks. It’s said to be the world’s largest faith-based television group.
Trinity Broadcasting co-founder Paul Crouch died in 2013. His wife, Jan, died last year.
It’s the second notable religion-focused property in Orange County that Greenlaw, one of the area’s most active commercial real estate investors, has recently been associated with.
In 2011 it bid for the Crystal Cathedral campus in Garden Grove but didn’t complete the bankruptcy-driven sale.
The campus was eventually bought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, which now operates it as Christ Cathedral.
The Costa Mesa buy is Alliance’s first in Orange County.
Lim previously worked for TeamRise, a China-backed real estate firm that’s been linked with a few development projects in the U.S. in the past few years, including a residential tower in Seattle.
He said his new firm’s funding comes from Canada.
In addition to the Costa Mesa property, Alliance is working on a residential development site in the Los Angeles County city of Claremont.
A custom home project with nearly 50 residences is in the works for the hillside site, Lim said last week.
