Office Building’s Price Reflects Slow Market : Real estate: The Resolution Trust Corp. is selling Class-A structure in Santa Ana for $39 a square foot -- lowest price this year.

The asking price on top-of-the-line Orange County office space continued its free fall Monday with the confirmation that an 11-year-old, three-story building in Santa Ana is on the market for about $39 a square foot, the lowest listing price so far this year.

The Resolution Trust Corp., which is the federal agency charged with selling the assets of thrifts seized by the government in the wake of the savings and loan crisis, is asking $1.7 million cash for the 42,744-square-foot building at 230 Golden Circle Drive, said Rand Sperry of Newport Beach-based Sperry Van Ness, a real estate investment firm.

The building was vacated by its major tenant Woodward-Clyde Consultants a year ago and has stood empty, which is one reason the asking price is so low, Sperry said. With about 5 million square feet of Class-A office space on the market in Orange County and vacancy rates of more than 22%, it’s a buyer’s market for buildings.

“If this building were made of gold, it would still only be worth $39 a square foot,” Sperry said, noting that the asking price is based on the gross square footage of the building, which includes hallways and other non-leasable space. To replace the building today would cost about $120 a square foot.

The primary interest in the building so far has been from users--companies that would occupy the building themselves--rather than investors, Sperry said. So far there are five offers on the table.

Whether prices will go still lower is unclear. “Until I see (comparable properties) selling for more than they were two to three months ago, I don’t think this is the bottom of the market,” Sperry said.

The lowest full sales price for Class-A office space in Orange County was $52.71 a square foot for a two-story building in Anaheim sold in March, according to Comps Inc., a San Diego-based real estate information service. The highest price was for a three-story building in Newport Beach, which sold for $230.38 a square foot in October, 1991.