Orange County Register Property Joins Wave of Newspaper Redevelopments
Former Houston Chronicle site: Rendering of new tower shows Hines’ 717 Texas Avenue building (left), new Hines building (center) and Hines’ Chase Tower on right.
HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – A large urban site that once housed the Orange County Register is set for major redevelopment, reflecting a broader trend of former newspaper properties being repurposed as the industry shifts from print to digital.
Lee & Associates has been retained to lease the proposed 1.7 million-square-foot office development and is collaborating with developer Caribou Industries to secure a joint-venture equity partner for the 20-acre parcel in Santa Ana, California.
Newspaper properties in prominent urban locations across the country are rapidly changing hands and being reimagined for new uses.
In Houston, Hines is building a roughly 1 million-square-foot tower on the former Houston Chronicle site, a downtown block bounded by Texas Avenue, Milam, Travis and Prairie. The 47-story tower, developed with partner Ivanhoé Cambridge, is scheduled for completion in 2021.
In Austin, plans are moving forward for redeveloping the 19-acre Austin American-Statesman site. The Cox family and Endeavor Real Estate Group are working on the project for the downtown property, which fronts Congress Avenue and has significant frontage along Lady Bird Lake. While the newspaper still operates from the site, CBRE has been hired to lease surplus office space.
In Dallas, the seven-acre former Dallas Morning News property near the convention center was once under contract for a $33 million sale to KDC and Hoque Global. That deal fell through after Amazon removed Dallas from consideration for its second headquarters. The Dallas Morning News relocated to a different downtown location in 2017.
In San Antonio, Gray Street Partners is redeveloping the former San Antonio Light building at 420 Broadway.
In Los Angeles, The Georgetown Company of New York is transforming the historic Herald Examiner building. HFF recently announced it arranged $56.4 million in financing to support the redevelopment of the landmark structure, originally completed in 1914 at the request of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.
The Santa Ana project benefits from its placement inside a designated Opportunity Zone, a federal investment incentive that has become an attractive vehicle for investors seeking tax-deferral advantages on capital gains.
Lee & Associates’ Orange County team — principals Jack Haley, Marshal Vogt, Matt Orville and Jaimeson Hearne — will partner with Caribou Industries on the Santa Ana development. Branded as 625IVE, the plan envisions a 20-acre, transit-oriented, mixed-use redevelopment of the former Orange County Register site at 625 N. Grand Avenue. The project is designed as a city-block, freeway-adjacent live/work/play destination intended to create a stronger urban core for the region. One Broadway Plaza represents the culmination of a two-decade collaboration between Caribou Industries and the City of Santa Ana to revitalize Orange County’s downtown.
