Drawbridge Realty Scores Full-Building SoCal Lease

Orange County notched a win for Santa Ana’s office leasing market.

The County of Orange will double its space at Drawbridge Realty’s three-story office building at 1700 East Saint Andrew Place with a recent expansion, Commercial Observer reported.

The county will add 99,600 square feet to its space, leasing the full 170,200-square-foot building through 2042. The county previously had a 15-year lease for 70,600 square feet.

The expansion will start with Orange County Health Care Agency moving into 59,000 square feet in about two years.

The deal is Drawbridge’s latest sizable lease this fall in Orange County. Last month, defense contractor Anduril signed a lease for the three-building, 190,000-square-foot Hive office campus in Costa Mesa owned by Drawbridge. The San Francisco-based landlord closed a deal that same day to buy the 14-acre Hive office complex at 3333-3337 Susan Street from Invesco Real Estate for $77.9 million.

That purchase came after the Costa Mesa Planning Commission recommended approval on a proposal from Legacy Partners to demolish the three existing two-floor buildings on the site to build 1,050 housing units, including at least 105 affordable units, as well as 336,000 square feet of open space at 3,700 square feet of retail.

Elsewhere in Costa Mesa, Meritage Homes bought the former Trinity Broadcasting Network campus at 3150 Bear Street for $44.5 million earlier this month. The seller was Manny Khoshbin of the Irvine-based Khoshbin Company, which offloaded the 6-acre property spanning 70,800 square feet of space. Khoshbin bought the site in 2021 for $22 million and advertised it as an event venue.

— Chris Malone Méndez