Meritage Buys Vacant Offices to Build Townhomes in Santa Ana

Meritage Homes has bought a vacant office site targeted for 86 townhomes in Santa Ana for $19.2 million.

The Scottsdale-based developer purchased the five-story, 111,500-square-foot building at 2020 East First Street, the Orange County Register reported. The seller was Harbor Associates, based in Long Beach.

The deal for the 3.7-acre property works out to $5.2 million an acre, or $172 per square foot. Harbor worked with the city to entitle the property for residential use. The offices, built in 1985 north of the 5 and 55 freeways interchange, would be demolished.

MLC Holdings, a unit of Meritage, has filed plans to build 86 three-story townhomes, including 80 between 1,200 and 1,800 square feet and six live-work units of 2,500 square feet. Each townhome would include between two and four bedrooms and a two-car garage.

The project would also have 194 parking spaces, including guest parking.

Meritage will employ density bonus incentives in exchange for five townhomes set aside for very low-income households, which could be a four-person household earning $78,900 a year, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The project, designed by Irvine-based Kevin L. Crook Architect, features gabled townhomes clad in white, gray and brown, or white, powder blue and slate, with black or brown doors, in 15 buildings separated by private drives, according to renderings.

“The project incorporates a contemporary architectural style consistent with many multifamily and mixed-use residential communities currently under construction in Santa Ana and the surrounding region,” a staff report said.

The townhome site abuts a large senior affordable housing complex at 2222 East First Street, completed in 2021.

Meritage Homes, a publicly traded firm founded in 1985 by Steve Hilton and William “Bill” Cleverly, has built 200,000 homes, and is the fifth-largest public home builder in the United States, based on homes closed last year, according to its website.

Operations span from Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

The company’s MLC Holdings filed plans in September to replace the former Christian television facility once owned by Trinity Broadcasting Network with 126 townhomes and 20 single-family homes at 3150 Bear Street in Costa Mesa.

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.

— Dana Bartholomew