MLC Holdings to Put Homes on OC’s Trinity Broadcasting Site

The former campus of the Trinity Broadcasting Network may not achieve everlasting life.

MLC Holdings, a unit of Scottsdale-based Meritage Homes, has filed plans to replace the former Christian television facility with 126 townhomes and 20 single-family homes at 3150 Bear Street in Costa Mesa, the Orange County Business Journal reported.

The developer has signed an option contract with The Khoshbin Company, the Irvine-based owner of the three-story office and studio campus, to buy the property for an undisclosed price.

MLC Holdings has also requested the City of Costa Mesa to change the property’s zoning to allow for “high density residential” and multifamily development.

Plans for the 6.2-acre site include 20 two-story homes and eight buildings with 126 townhomes targeted to first-time buyers.

The single-family homes would range between 1,400 and 1,900 square feet, with three or four bedrooms and two-car garages. The attached townhomes would be from 1,100 to 2,200 square feet, with two to four bedrooms and two-car garages.

The 66,000-square-foot palazzo-styled Trinity Broadcasting Network building, built in 1978 along the 405 Freeway across from South Coast Plaza, would be demolished.

The network vacated its ornate studios containing a domed atrium and ballroom in a building once known for its bright holiday displays, in 2017 after declining revenues. The broadcaster relocated its headquarters to Fort Worth, Texas.

Two years later, Education First Properties proposed converting the ornate property into an “international language campus,” but plans fizzled.

Manny Khoshbin, head of Khoshbin, bought the property in 2021 for $21 million, then sank more than $1 million to improve it, he told the Daily Pilot. In February, he renamed the white, V-shaped building The Palazzo and re-opened it as an event center.

MLC Holdings, founded in 2014, has offices in Newport Beach and San Ramon, according to its LinkedIn page. The firm focuses on developing infill housing, and has built more than 10,000 homes in the Golden State.

Two years ago, the developer agreed to buy and preserve a historic orange grove in Redlands in order to build more than 300 homes on 58.6 acres of planted oranges and fields.

— Dana Bartholomew