City to Sell Office Building It Bought in ’90

Just months after it paid $3 million for an office building that was to be the new City Hall, the City Council reversed directions this week, voting 3 to 2 to put that building up for sale.

The council, in making its decision, cited the $1.3 million it would cost to renovate the two-story office complex at 24800 Chrisanta Drive, and it instructed its staff to study whether a new civic center should be built on land to be donated by the Mission Viejo Co.

“You don’t throw good money after bad,” said Councilman Robert D. Breton, who joined with Mayor Robert A. Curtis and Councilwoman Sharon Cody in voting to sell the Chrisanta property. The money “needed to renovate this dilapidated building would be money badly spent,” he said.

The decision to sell the building comes just eight months after the council approved its purchase. Three new council members were elected in November, however, and two of them--Cody and Breton--sided with Curtis.

Councilman William S. Craycraft said he fears that the office building, formerly occupied by the Mission Viejo Co., will become a white elephant.

“I’m deeply disappointed that the only building the city owns is going to go out for sale in a depressed market,” Craycraft said. The office complex was on the market for more than a year before the city bought it.

City officials estimate that it will take at least three years to build a new civic center. In the meantime, the city is paying about $400,000 in rent a year for an office suite at 26522 La Alameda.

“In my heart of hearts, I still feel it makes better economic sense to move into a site that we already have,” Councilwoman Susan Withrow said. “Now we may be taking a big loss” on the Chrisanta building.

However, Breton said he was confident that the office complex will sell quickly.

The seven-acre site near Crown Valley Parkway that the Mission Viejo Co. recently agreed to donate to the city will be a good city hall location, Breton said, because it is in what will be the financial hub of the area.

The Mission Viejo Co. has plans to build a major hotel and commercial center on Crown Valley Parkway.