The owners of Griffin Towers, a two-building office project in Santa Ana that sold in April, have signed a lease at the property.

Optima Tax Relief signed a 40-month lease of approximately 38K SF and will move in later this year.

“The property is well-located, and we’re excited for Optima to enjoy everything Griffin Towers offers,” Barker Pacific Group Managing Director Michael Barker said in a news release. “We are encouraged to have this new leasing activity at the project and it bodes well for companies returning to office after the pandemic.”

A partnership between Barker Pacific Group and Kingsbarn Realty Capital bought the towers in April. The seller, a Blackstone entity, sold at a $47M loss.

The roughly 560K SF property was 68% leased when it changed hands in April, according to representatives for the previous owner. It is unclear whether other tenants were added to the roster before Optima Tax Relief, but on its own, the Optima lease could boost overall occupancy at the towers to about 75%.

Newmark's Craig Kish and Richard Sung are the tenant representatives for Optima. CBRE's Dean Chandler, Justin Hill, Peter Wells and Taylor Friend lead leasing for Griffin Towers. BPG will direct property management with an on-site management team.

Net absorption in the Orange County office market in the third quarter totaled about 80K SF, although year-to-date absorption stands at a net negative 1.2M SF, according to a Newmark report. Developers don't have any new offices under construction, a first since 2008's Great Recession, and vacancy is up to 18.3%, the report says.

About a third of Orange County's office buildings have occupancy of less than 80%, a benchmark under which Newmark says it can become difficult to generate net operating income and pay any debts on a property.