South OC Office Sale Suggests Market in Doldrums

The market demise of a 68,000-square-foot office building in south Orange County is no more apparent than its $74.3 million purchase six years ago to its sale this week for $15.5 million.

A mystery investor paid the latter price for Plaza Pointe, a five-story building at 23041 Avenida de la Carlota in Laguna Hills, the Orange County Business Journal reported, citing CoStar.

The seller was View Point, a limited liability company based in Los Angeles, according to the newspaper. The firm is not listed in state business records.

A View Pointe LLC involving Gor Mnatsakanyan, Hayk Mnatsakanyan and Andrew Harper is based at the same address as the sold office building in Laguna Hills, according to the Secretary of State.

The deal works out to $228 per square foot.

Tenants include Kaiser Permanente, Data Center Warehouse and Terracon. Its occupancy at the time of sale was not disclosed.

The sale marks a 79 percent drop in value since just before the pandemic ushered in a broad shift to remote work, and a relative collapse in the office market across the U.S.

View Pointe bought the office building from Lincoln Property Group in 2023 for $15.5 million.

Lincoln Property, based in Dallas, purchased it in 2019 for $74.3 million, or $1,093 per square foot.

Office vacancy in South OC in third-quarter 2024 was 13 percent, “as a variety of tenants moved into the submarket,” according to CBRE.

Early last year, the office vacancy across Orange County hovered at 19.6 percent, with 18 million square feet of empty workplaces, according to Cushman & Wakefield. In South OC, the vacancy rate was 20 percent.— Dana Bartholomew