A 19-floor office building adjacent to The Outlets at Orange sold for a deep discount, trading for a paltry $51.51 per square feet.
Newport Beach-based Surlamer Investments, owned by Fariborz Maseeh, bought City Plaza for $18.5 million, according to Orange County records.
The sale price, on a per square foot basis, is likely one of the cheapest deals in recent years for Orange County.
City Plaza, per CoStar, was only 14% leased at the time of the sale.
Surlamer Investments bought the office tower, located near the intersection of the Santa Ana (5), Garden Grove (22) and Orange (57) freeways from TPG Capital LP.
TPG Capital, per public documents, obtained City Plaza in foreclosure in early 2024, after previous owners Greenlaw Partners and Walton Street Capital defaulted on the building’s $64.2 million unpaid debt.
The 369,134-square-foot City Plaza building was built in 1969 and renovated in 1999. City Plaza sits on 11.3 acres and was developed by City Development Co. The building’s tenants include Core Law Group, Courier Insurance Services Inc. and United American Insurance Co., per CoStar.
CoStar describes City Plaza as a “landmark” office building.
The $51.51 per square foot price is about half of what Orange County entrepreneur and philanthropist Joe C. Wen paid for 5000 Birch St. in Newport Beach. Wen’s Formosa Ltd. bought the 310,000-square-foot Newport Beach tower for $106 per square foot in April. The deal, at the time of the transaction, was considered a bargain basement sale.
CBRE’s Anthony DeLorenzo, Bryan Johnson, Nick Williams, Matt Didier, Jennifer Whittington and Sammy Cemo helped broker the deal.
Surlamer Investments
City Plaza’s new owners, Surlamer Investments, is a Newport Beach-based wealth management firm specializing in private companies, publicly traded securities and real estate.
Some of the industries Surlamer Investments bet on include education, media, medical technology and wearable devices. The company was founded by Maseeh, who sold Intellisense, a computer chip company he founded in 1991, for $750 million.
Surlamer Investments also owns 17861 Von Karman Ave. in Irvine, a one-level, 44,000-square-foot medical office building. The wealth management firm bought the building in 2010 for $17.3 million, or $392 per square foot, according to CoStar data.
According to multiple news reports, former high-rise owner TPG Capital acquired City Plaza via a deed in lieu of foreclosure deal.
Irvine-based Greenlaw Partners and Chicago’s Walton Street Capital bought City Tower for $56 million in 2013, according to CoStar data.
News reports said City Plaza was 94% occupied when Greenlaw and Walton Street bought the building. Greenlaw and Walton Street handed the keys to City Plaza back to the lender a little more than 10 years later when the building carried an unpaid debt of $64 million.
Orange County’s Office Market
The sale of City Plaza is not only one of the cheapest deals ever for an Orange County office building but is also a significant bargain compared to what Henry Samueli’s company, H&S Ventures LLC, paid for Stadium Tower a few miles away.
Samueli paid $72.9 million for the 12-floor office building just beyond Angel Stadium’s outfield seats and near the same freeway interchanges where City Plaza is located. That deal is the most expensive for an Orange County office building this year. H&S Ventures paid $275 per square foot for Stadium Tower.
Other notable office transactions this year include Irvine Community Land Trust paying $380 per square feet for a 70,000-square-foot office building at 2400 Barranca Parkway in Irvine and Brea-based Eagle Hua Inc. buying 27401 Los Altos in Mission Viejo for $336 per square foot.
Hyundai Glovis snatched an Irvine office building for $172 per square foot. Arizona-based Meritage Homes bought a vacant office building in Santa Ana, also for $172 per square foot.
Glaukos Corp. paid almost $415 per square foot for a two-floor 40,000-square-foot office building next to its Aliso Viejo headquarters
