Segerstrom to Replace Santa Ana Offices With R&D Center

C.J Segerstrom & Sons wants to raze 180,000 square feet of offices in Santa Ana and replace them with 300,000 square feet of industrial buildings that could be used as research labs.

The Costa Mesa-based firm owned by the Segerstrom family has filed plans to replace three office buildings 3100, 3110 and 3120 West Lake Center Drive, the Orange County Business Journal reported.

They would be replaced by three industrial buildings on nearly 16 acres, which would include a 5.6-acre lot added to the Lake Center Office Park site. The new industrial complex, to be called South Coast Technology Center, would cost $126 million.

Plans for the office-to-industrial conversion come on the heels of a proposal by Segerstrom to replace a 100,000-square-foot shopping center in Santa Ana with a 1.9-million-square-foot urban-retail village with nearly 1,600 homes.

The 125-year-old firm owns the 17.2-acre South Coast Plaza Village shopping center at 1621 Sunflower Avenue. The replacement project, dubbed The Village Santa Ana, would include 1,583 homes, up to 300,000 square feet of offices and up to 80,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.

The company’s South Coast Technology Center would offer tenants greater flexibility, and could be used as offices, labs and research space, according to a project spokeswoman.

The new development reflects the changes in the area’s office market.

“The existing facilities were designed more than 30 years ago and no longer meet the needs of today’s companies,” Marice DePasquale, a spokeswoman for South Coast Technology Center, told the Business Journal in an email.

In July, Corona-based Watermarke Properties picked up two office buildings in South Santa Ana for $36.3 million, with plans to replace them with apartments.

— Dana Bartholomew