Once Bustling Building Nearly Vacant : Real estate: Bank of America now owns, but has no use for, former Security Pacific Corp. data processing center in Brea.
The building that once housed Brea’s largest employer is now standing nearly empty, and city officials are growing increasingly anxious about the lost revenue.
The three-story facility at 275 S. Valencia Ave. was Security Pacific Corp.’s data processing headquarters, and at one time nearly 2,000 Security Pacific employees worked there. When Security Pacific merged with BankAmerica Corp. last year, Bank of America, which inherited the 688,000-square-foot building, shut down the data processing operation. The bank says that the 300 people who still work there will move out by year’s end.
When that happens, Brea will have “this big facility in our city sitting vacant. It would increase the vitality of the local economy to get more people in there,” said Sherry Norman, executive director of the Brea Chamber of Commerce. “It would mean another 2,000 people in Brea, eating lunch, going to the dry cleaners, getting their cars serviced.”
Custom-built for Security Pacific in the early 1980s on 32 acres, the beautifully landscaped facility, estimated by city officials to be worth $113.5 million, has temperature-controlled rooms where computer banks for check processing once stood. Magnetic security cards are required to get from one part of the building to another. The facility has the capacity to produce its own electricity, and it has a helicopter landing pad on the roof.
Bank of America took ownership of the building in April, 1992, when the merger was completed.
“It’s a huge developed property that needs a re-user to benefit our community,” said Tim O’Donnell, assistant city manager for Brea, which he says has a daytime population of more than 100,000 but a nighttime population of just 34,000.
The city estimates that it will lose $2.3 million in annual revenue if the building stands empty, O’Donnell said. That is because property taxes are levied not only on the structure but also on the contents of commercial buildings--machinery, computers, desks and any other equipment used to generate revenue for the company.
Bank of America, however, has other Security Pacific real estate on its hands and only this month hired real estate broker CB Commercial to analyze the Brea building. CB Commercial is not actively brokering the building, the bank said.
John Davis, head of Bank of America’s Southern California real estate division, said he met with city officials about the building in September, 1992.
“We are very receptive to working with the city of Brea and others to come up with a plan for the disposition of that building that will attempt to accommodate the needs of the city, community groups, and other governmental agencies, while maximizing the value to our shareholders,” Davis said in a prepared statement this week.
Davis said it could be months, though, before the bank decides what to do with the building.
City officials don’t want to wait that long. They say that the facility is the largest property taxpayer in Brea’s redevelopment area and that the city cannot afford a decline in income.
Susan Georgino, deputy director of the Brea Redevelopment Agency, said her agency has met with BankAmerica officials several times.
“They seemed skeptical about what role we could play. They have not been as receptive as we would like,” Georgino said. “They seem to think, ‘Our job is property management, your job is running a city.’ ”
Georgino said the redevelopment agency can help market the building in various ways, including passing on possible tenant leads to real estate brokers.
“I do believe there is a growing role for a municipality to play in leasing a building,” Georgino said. “We’re trying to help market it.”
If a suitable tenant is found and building improvements are needed, Georgino said, the redevelopment agency has funds available from a 1991 bond issue. Though it does not want to provide an ongoing rent subsidy, Georgino said, the agency could help pay for the substantial costs of renovating the building to suit a tenant’s needs.
Real estate specialists, however, say that, even with incentives, the city and the bank will not find a new tenant easily, given the special features of the building and its size.
“Sounds like a dinosaur,” said Mark E. Van Ness, chief executive officer of Sperry Van Ness, a real estate brokerage based in Newport Beach. “Nearly 700,000 square feet of a building like that? I don’t think their chances are very good. It will certainly be one to watch.”
