Scottsdale-based Meritage Homes will demolish an office complex in Santa Ana and build 86 townhomes in its place.
Meritage bought the property near the convergence of the 55 and 5 freeways from Harbor Associates for $19.2 million. The deal closed April 29.
Long Beach-based Harbor worked with the city to entitle the property at 2020 E. First St. for residential use.
According to the site plan, the three-story townhomes will range from roughly 1,200-1,800 square feet with six live-work units at 2,500 square feet. Each unit would have two to four bedrooms and two-car garages.
The site would also have 194 parking spaces including guest parking.
The townhomes, when complete, will be adjacent to the sprawling, five-story First Point Apartments at 2114 E. First St. When completed, the two-building complex on 6.6 acres will have 552 units and retail space on the first level of Building A, according to the architecture firm AO in Orange.
“The COVID pandemic changed the way users live and work,” said Paul Miszkowicz, a principal at Harbor. “Our recent adaptive reuse business plans are reflective of markets that have an excess supply of office inventory, but are dramatically undersupplied for housing, industrial and life science uses.”
Miszkowicz said the firm anticipates more change in “the built environment over the next 10 years than in the previous 30 years combined.”
Harbor is taking advantage of the workplace pivot, finding properties that are under-leased and reimagining the space for industrial or residential use. In February 2024, the company tore down a Santa Ana office complex and turned the property into a logistics hub.
In Los Angeles, the firm is converting an office site into 228 apartments. It also got approval in Santa Clarita to demolish a 118,750-square-foot office building and replace it with a 115,000-square-foot industrial building. Harbor is also planning an office-to-116 residential unit conversion in Denver.