B of A Offers to Buy Brea Office Building

A BankAmerica Corp. unit has offered to pay $142.5 million to buy an Orange County office building it has been leasing.

Pacific Southwest Realty Co., which was acquired by BankAmerica in the bank’s merger with Security Pacific, will stop leasing the 680,000-square-foot building that houses its data processing center in Brea on Dec. 29, according to the owners.

The purchase offer triggered the call provision for a package of zero-coupon bonds that are the first mortgage debt of the owner, Claremont Associates. Aside from cash, this building is the limited partnership’s only asset.

Claremont is considering whether to accept the bank’s offer.

About 200 people work in the building. BankAmerica has been moving most of its data processing work from Brea to its office in downtown Los Angeles.

Bank spokesman Bob Wynne said it would cost the bank more to continue leasing the building than to buy it.

The price offered by the bank was based on a formula in the lease, according to CA Pacific Inc., a general partner of Claremont Associates.