The owner of the former headquarters of the Orange County Register newspaper in Santa Ana is looking to sell the building or find a partner to develop the 20-acre property.
CBRE, the exclusive listing adviser for the seller, Santa Ana developer Mike Harrah, has sent out brochure emails calling for offers for the site at 625 North Grand Ave. starting April 11.
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The brochure did not list the selling price or terms of a JV.
An email to Harrah’s Caribou Industries was not returned before press time. An email to CBRE’s listing agents also was not returned.
Known for his towering 6-foot-6-inch height and ZZ Top beard, Harrah is a well-known construction magnate in Santa Ana.
In 2014, when the 100-year-old newspaper began facing financial difficulties, Harrah purchased the five-story building that overlooked Interstate 5 for $20M.
He and a partner later tried to purchase the newspaper out of bankruptcy but when he lost that bid to Digital First Media, he bought the rest of the Register’s surrounding property totaling 14 acres for $34M.
The newspaper moved to Anaheim in 2017.
Harrah envisions the former Register headquarters as a 180K SF mixed-use urban live-work-play project that would complement the growing Santa Ana area.
