A federal office complex in Los Alamitos in north Orange County has been auctioned off to a housing developer for $26.5 million.
The U.S. government sold its 12.4-acre office property at 4665 Lampson Ave. to an affiliate of the Laguna Beach-based MW Investment Group, known for urban infill housing development.
The Poplar Plaza, located near the military’s Joint Forces Training Base, includes an 88,000-square-foot, two-story building assigned to the U.S. Department of Education, plus the land a 387-space parking lot.
A Ladera Ranch-based affiliate of MW Investment scored the winning bid for the property in a September auction. The sale closed last month, according to government records.
The auction began with an opening bid of $20 million before MW Investment beat out five bidders at $26.5 million. The final sale comes out to $2.1 million per acre.
The building’s sole tenant is WestEd, a San Francisco-based nongovernmental educational organization licensed to occupy the office. It will remain in its office rent-free through December, according to terms of the sale.
MW Investments has worked on planning and entitlement work for projects totaling more than 1,100 residential units since 2009, according to its website. Its combined development portfolio exceeds $500 million in value.
“We specialize in finding multifamily residential, townhome, and small lot development properties that are not being used to their full potential, and repositioning these properties with a new product type,” the company said in a statement.
The auction sale follows on the heels of some hefty Orange County office deals.
Fullerton Towers, one of the largest office complexes in North Orange County, traded this month for $45.5 million. Last fall, Amazon paid $165 million for a 30-acre office campus in Brea, marking the year’s priciest O.C. sale. Two MacArthur in Santa Ana also traded hands for $98 million.
[OCBJ] — Dana Bartholomew
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