6.6 Acres in Irvine Spectrum Up for Auction : Sale: The area contains some of Orange County’s priciest land for industrial and research space. About 85% of it is leased.

To the highest bidder: a 6.6-acre vacant parcel of land in Irvine Spectrum cater-corner to AST Research, right off the San Diego Freeway.

Opening price: just $2.50 a square foot, a total of $718,740.

Sound like a deal? A Newport Beach auction company is trying to drum up interest in the site, which may be the first Irvine Spectrum property to go on the auction block.

“It’s a very special piece of land,” said Michael Fine, vice president of Sheldon Good & Co., a Chicago auction company with an office in Newport Beach. “It’s an opportunity for the public to determine the price.”

The property, at the southwest corner of Laguna Canyon Road and Alton Parkway in the office complex, is part of a grab bag of luxury homes, commercial land, office buildings, apartments and retail properties that will be sold March 13 at the Westin South Coast Plaza.

The properties are among real estate assets that First Fidelity Thrift & Loan Assn. in San Diego is attempting to sell quickly. Trying to sell the site separately could take more than six months, and the thrift would have to spend more on marketing expenses as well as the costs of maintaining the property, said Richard Bradshaw, assistant vice president at First Fidelity.

The most recent major purchase of land in the Spectrum was for about $10.25 a square foot when Maruchan Inc., a Japanese noodle maker, bought 32 acres in a deal estimated at just over $14 million.

In 1989, Triquest Development Co. in Irvine paid Irvine Co. about $5.4 million, or $13.05 a square foot, for a 9.5-acre parcel that included the Spectrum site. A year later, Triquest sold almost 3 acres of the land to Western Financial Savings Bank at a price equal to $23.88 a square foot.

Since then, however, the market for office and industrial space has taken a beating. Last week, the remaining Triquest property was deeded to First Fidelity Savings in San Diego in lieu of a foreclosure, Bradshaw said. Such a move is considered a good-faith gesture that saves a financial institution from starting default proceedings when a borrower is unable to meet the payments.

The site is the first vacant commercial property to go up for auction in South County since 90 acres of the San Clemente Business Park were put on the block last year, said Stan Mullin, senior marketing consultant at the Irvine office of real estate brokerage Grubb & Ellis. The winning offer for that property, he said, eventually fell through.

Bids for the Irvine Spectrum site “probably will go much higher” than the opening price, Mullin said. “It’s a very nice spot, easy to get to. (The buyer) probably would have to be a user that needed its own space.”

Even in a depressed market, Irvine Spectrum contains some of Orange County’s priciest land for industrial and research space. About 85% of the Spectrum’s industrial space is now leased.

First Fidelity is offering financing and a 2% discount if the buyer pays cash. If a cash buyer closes the deal within 10 days, there will be an additional 2% discount. First Fidelity also has five days to decide whether to accept a bid and will pay the winning bidder $2,500 if the offer is turned down.