Plaza Tower, arguably the best-known office building in Costa Mesa, is keeping one of its signature tenants.
Snell & Wilmer LLP, one of Orange County’s largest law firms, recently signed a 53,000-square-foot lease renewal at Plaza Tower, the 21-story office at 600 Anton Blvd.
The deal is believed to be the largest lease by square foot for a law firm in OC this year.
Terms of the renewal weren’t disclosed.
Snell & Wilmer’s initial lease at Plaza Tower, struck about a decade ago, was reportedly worth around $23 million and covered roughly 57,000 square feet, slightly more space than what it renewed its lease for.
A slight dip in square footage is in keeping with the recent trend of law firms taking less office space amid shrinking on-site law libraries, fewer support staff per attorney, and electronic storage replacing paper files.
Snell & Wilmer’s Costa Mesa office employs 128 people, including 58 attorneys, according to the Business Journal’s most recent ranking. It is Orange County’s seventh largest law firm by attorney count.
The firm opted to keep its current location due in part to the building’s “proximity to the Santa Ana courthouses, the airport, and many of our clients and peers,” said William O’Hare, administrative partner in charge of Snell & Wilmer’s OC office.
Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s Rick Kaplan, Robert Lambert and Matt Moore represented Plaza Tower in the latest transaction. Snell & Wilmer was represented by Kevin Bender and Steve Bay of CBRE Group Inc.
Law firms are the primary source of occupants for Plaza Tower, taking up roughly 40% of the building, which was designed by architect Cesar Pelli.
Snell & Wilmer is the largest law firm in the 470,000-square-foot tower and the second largest tenant. IBM Corp., which once had an ownership stake in the building, leases about 66,000 square feet there. The tower is about 80% leased.
It’s one of three high-rise offices next to South Coast Plaza that are owned by affiliates of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons. Those holdings hold the local offices for 10 of the 19 largest U.S. law firms as ranked by The American Lawyer.
Prayers Answered
It looks like the owners of the Orange County Register can thank the heavens above—and Mike Harrah—for the recent $27 million sale of the newspaper’s headquarters in Santa Ana.
The local developer last month completed the purchase of the 173,000-square-foot Register offices at 625 N. Grand Ave., from Freedom Communications Inc., the under-fire owner of the Register.
Harrah’s Caribou Industries Inc. hasn’t put too much money, if any, into the deal so far, according to loan documents tied to the closely watched purchase.
The developer, listed in records as OC Media Tower LP, got a loan for the full amount of the purchase. The lender: Plaza del Sol Real Estate Trust, which is affiliated with longtime San Diego evangelist Morris Cerullo.
The San Diego-based trust has made other real estate investments in Southern California. Notable deals include the 2011 purchase of the Mission Valley Resort, which it bought out of foreclosure for more than $18 million.
Local reports say the 18-acre property will be turned into the world headquarters and international training center for Cerullo’s religious operations.
There have been no reports of Cerullo’s ministries being involved with the Register, which signed a 20-year leaseback with Harrah as part of the Grand Avenue office sale, or in the 14 acres of developable land next to the office that was listed for sale this month by Freedom Communications.
