The distinctive, six-acre campus that long served as the headquarters for Christian media company Trinity Broadcasting Network has traded hands, paving the way for a new residential development.
MLC Land Holdings Inc., a Newport Beach-based subsidiary of Arizona’s Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) that focuses on infill residential communities, recently completed the purchase of the elaborate Trinity Broadcasting site at 3150 Bear St., which is visible from the San Diego (405) Freeway in Costa Mesa.
The property, located on the opposite side of the 405 as South Coast Plaza, sold for $44.5 million, or about $7.4 million an acre.
CBRE’s Anthony DeLorenzo, Greg Sullivan, Sammy Cemo and Bryan Johnson represented the seller, Manny Khoshbin, with Irvine’s Khoshbin Co., in the transaction.
The redevelopment opportunity “offered an exceptional combination of a highly sought-after location and significant developable land size in a thriving market,” DeLorenzo said.
“We continue to see robust demand for well-located real estate with redevelopment opportunities throughout Southern California.”
August Approvals
The deal with the Meritage Homes unit had been expected for several months.
In August, the builder received city approvals to construct 142 homes at the site, comprising a mix of detached two-story single-family homes and four-story stacked flats.
The homes will range in size from 1,062 square feet for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit to 2,364 square feet for a four-bedroom, three-bath residence, according to city filings.
The project is expected to take about two years to complete, according to a letter submitted by the builder to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission.
“Meritage Homes believes that the housing proposed by this new community delivers the type of missing-middle for-sale housing that is desperately needed in the region and to offer the benefits of homeownership to Costa Mesa residents,” the homebuilder said.
Other recent deals in the area for Meritage and MLC include the $19.2 million purchase of 2020 E. 1st St. in Santa Ana, a longtime office site where an 86-unit townhome project is now underway.
Trinity Broadcasting
Trinity Broadcasting Network, founded in 1973, constructed the ornate, 70,799-square-foot Bear Street building, which served as its headquarters in 1976. The building and campus included film studios, a theater and outdoor parking facilities.
It stopped using the building and campus for its media operations in 2017, and the site saw several proposals for redevelopment and other uses considered over the subsequent years.
Education First Properties proposed converting the property into an “international language campus” in 2019, but that proposal died after the pandemic began.
Khoshbin Co. bought the campus in 2021 for $22 million and renamed it The Palazzo by Khoshbin. The company described it as a “magical European-style event venue” on its social media pages.
