ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Supervisors Approve Plan to Sell 14 Properties in June

More than a dozen county-owned properties worth $30 million will be auctioned to the high bidders next month under an asset-sale plan approved Tuesday by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The properties range from a library in Seal Beach worth $450,000 to a parking lot near The Pond in Anaheim valued at $9 million.

The auction will mark the county’s most ambitious attempt yet to liquidate government assets to help dig out of its bankruptcy crisis. Already, the county has sold two small buildings in Anaheim and Santa Ana.

Supervisors selected Lange Financial Services in Newport Beach to handle the auction. William Lange, owner of the company, agreed to conduct the auction for free and is now looking for a hotel willing to donate meeting hall space for the event, county officials said.

“Obviously, [Lange] was the low bid,” said Chuck West, the county’s real estate director.

A total of 14 properties will go on the block, but West said some might be subdivided to make them more attractive to buyers.

The assets include a closed fire station, a drug rehabilitation center and a parking lot in Santa Ana, as well as other buildings and vacant lots around the county.

Anaheim officials have expressed interest in purchasing the parcel near The Pond, and Leisure World might bid on the Seal Beach library, located just outside the retirement community.

The auction will mark the first phase of a plan unveiled in March by County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy to sell 30 properties worth about $145 million.

At the same time it approved the auction, supervisors also directed county officials to seek proposals from firms interested in buying and leasing back several buildings in the Santa Ana Civic Center.

“It’s basically a way to mortgage your property,” explained Robert A. Griffith, director of the county’s General Services Agency.

Griffith said the properties would be sold to a private company, which would lease them back to the county for 30 years.

Among the civic center buildings being considered for lease-back arrangements are the Hall of Administration, various office buildings, the Probation Department and a courthouse.