Local developer Michael Harrah has purchased the Orange County Register’s Santa Ana headquarters for $27 million, Register publisher Aaron Kushner said Monday.
Freedom Communications, the Register’s parent company, will lease back the 175,000-square-foot building, located on Grand Avenue just off Interstate 5, for 20 years, Kushner said.
“With the long-term lease, we’re not anticipating moving out of our headquarter building,” said Kushner, who also serves as Freedom’s chief executive.
The transaction includes a five-story office tower and parking structure. Freedom, however, still owns the adjacent property that houses the company’s printing presses.
Freedom decided to sell the company’s headquarters “to further strengthen our balance sheet,” Kushner said.
Harrah, who has bought and revamped several properties in Santa Ana, said Monday the purchase is part of a larger plan to expand his development holdings in the city. He said he eventually plans to add mixed-use development in the Grand Avenue area, which would be part of what he calls “the vertical urbanization of downtown Santa Ana.”
He is in negotiations with Freedom to buy the balance of the company’s Santa Ana real estate, which includes the printing plant and an empty lot, Harrah added.
The Hoiles family, the original owners of the Register, built the Grand Avenue office tower in 1986.
Contact the writer: lleung@ocregister.com
