Auction Price of Ziggurat in Laguna Niguel Climbs to $164M

Zeal for the pyramid-shaped federal office building known as the Ziggurat in Laguna Niguel has driven up its price to $164.4 million, more than twice the auction’s starting price.

The bidding war has extended the auction by the General Services Administration of the seven-story, 1 million-square-foot Chet Holifield Federal Building at 24000 Avila Road, the Orange County Register Reported.

The $164.4 million bid on Monday, Sept. 23, was 135 percent above the initial $70 million ask.

Online bidding for the 91-acre property in south Orange County opened June 5 and was supposed to close July 31 — if bidding slowed. The rules state that the auction will stop when a business day ends without a bid in the previous 24 hours. But the bidding has continued for 37 straight business days, usually with minimum required bid increases of $300,000.

Three bidders have prolonged the auction for the Ziggurat, a Brutalist concrete structure designed by William Pereira to resemble a Ziggurat, a stepped pyramid in ancient Mesopotamia.

A bidding volley began late Friday afternoon, breaking a 17-day run when the only activity were two bids: one made just minutes before the deadline, followed by a response to that move.

An investor known as “Bidder #02” by the GSA bid up the price by $300,000 only 29 minutes before the auction was to end, according to the Register.

Within seconds, “Bidder #01” shot back by bidding another $300,000.

By late afternoon, Bidder #02 responded with another $300,000, returned by a $300,000 backhand by Bidder #01.

The exchange was repeated Monday, with #02 and #01 exchanged four more bids of $300,000 each.

The competition for the Ziggurat site comes as a rare opportunity for large-scale development in south OC.

This is the second auction for the nearly vacant campus. The first auction in late 2022, which required the buyer to preserve the distinctive beige structure, drew no takers. The stampede of investors to the latest auction — without the preservation restriction — suggests the buyer will likely bulldoze the 53-year-old building.

A study by the Urban Land Institute last year recommended the City of Laguna Niguel allow a developer to build between 2,000 and 4,000 homes, with a density of 60 to 80 units per acre.

The Brutalistic building, completed in 1971 for North American Aviation, has historic importance in its resemblance to “the ancient ziggurats,” according to the GSA. Uncle Sam bought the building three years later.

For decades, the building housed thousands of federal employees from up to 12 agencies, including 2,000 from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

— Dana Bartholomew