MISSION VIEJO : Search for City Hall May Be Near Its End

After months of sifting through options, the city’s search for a permanent City Hall has narrowed to a single building, and the matter could be ready for City Council consideration within a month or so, officials said Monday.

According to several sources, the building is located at 24800 Chrisanta Drive. A few blocks east of Interstate 5, it houses employees of the Mission Viejo Co. and sits across the street from the Mission Viejo branch of the Orange County Public Library.

Brokers for the building declined to comment on its asking price, but Kevin Cannon, a Coldwell Banker broker, said that for a building of its size and type, the city could expect to pay $3.5 million.

The new building holds 32,000 square feet of office space, nearly twice the space currently leased by the city. The city’s current offices take up nearly the entire first floor of a building on La Alameda and cover about 16,600 square feet.

Craig Perkins, a broker for Grubb-Ellis who is handling the sale of the Chrisanta Drive building, said an appraisal has been ordered for it and could be completed within a week.

“We’re extremely excited about this, and we’re confident that we can arrive at an agreement,” Perkins said, although he declined to discuss the deal in detail because negotiations are under way.

The matter has been discussed in closed sessions of the City Council as the city narrowed its options from a list of more than a dozen to the Chrisanta location. Like Perkins, several city officials declined to give details of the negotiations until they are concluded.

For now, City Manager Fred Sorsabal said, the next move is up to the owner.

“We’re just waiting to see if the party will make us an offer,” he said. “Until then, there’s really no action that we can take.”

In its search for a city hall, which may house other facilities such as an arts center and a sheriff’s station, Mission Viejo is driven by crowded conditions in its current space, as well as rising rent and a sense among some council members that the city should make a long-term investment in property.

Mayor Christian W. Keena and Councilman William S. Craycraft, who served as mayor last year, have emerged as the leading proponents of the move. The city pays more than $370,000 a year for its La Alameda offices, and the rent is increasing by about 5% to 6% a year.

Councilman Robert A. Curtis has indicated that he tentatively favors buying a new city hall, but cautioned Monday that his support will depend on the agreement reached with the current building owner and the proposed moving schedule.

“I want to avoid a situation where we’re paying double rent someplace,” Curtis said. “I don’t know if we want to jump into something right away.”