Price Waterhouse to Relocate Offices Near S. Coast Plaza

Price Waterhouse, the big accounting firm, signed one of the biggest leases in Orange County in the last year and will move its local office from Newport Beach to a building near South Coast Plaza here.

The 10-year lease, estimated to be worth about $8 million, is for the top two floors of a 12-story tower in the three-building South Coast Metro complex.

Price Waterhouse will move 160 people from the Irvine Co.’s pricey Newport Center near the Fashion Island mall to the less expensive Costa Mesa address in July. The firm had leased 40,000 square feet at the building at 660 Newport Center Drive, the same amount of space it will have at the South Coast Metro building at 575 Anton Blvd.

The move comes at a time when vacancy rates countywide are high--more than 20% in most areas--and landlords are offering attractive incentives to attract new tenants.

Few details of the Price Waterhouse lease are known. Negotiations on the lease began months ago.

The owners of the three South Coast Metro buildings are Transpacific Development Co., Torrance, and Copley Real Estate Advisors, Boston.

The oldest building, the one which Price Waterhouse will occupy, was built in 1984. The second one was built in 1985 and the third in 1988.