BankAmerica to Move 2,500 Workers Into Brea Offices

BankAmerica Corp., unable to unload a vacant three-story office building in Brea that it bought for $100 million over market value three years ago, said Thursday it will move about 2,500 employees from seven divisions into the facility.

More than 1,400 employees will be transferred from the bank’s loan processing division, National Consumer Assets Group, which has offices in Pasadena and elsewhere in Brea. Another 110 employees will be transferred from a warehouse facility in Anaheim, but bank officials would not disclose other Southern California operations being moved.

BankAmerica inherited a lease on the building as part of its 1992 merger with Security Pacific Corp., which had used the mammoth facility as a check processing center. At its peak, the center was staffed by 2,000 people, making it Brea’s largest employer.

BankAmerica bought the building in 1994 for $143 million after determining that an outright purchase would be less expensive than paying rent on the remainder of Security Pacific’s 13-year lease. It also vacated the building that year after determining that the check processing could be handled by other BankAmerica operations.

Since then, the bank has attempted to sell the building to a large corporation or investor. Although it had nibbles from Fluor Corp. and Unocal, among others, there were no takers.

The decision to vacate the building was a big blow to the city of Brea, which had collected property taxes as well as taxes on contents--machinery or equipment used to generate revenue for the company.

The city lost nearly $1 million each year in revenue, forcing it to delay some redevelopment projects downtown, said Sue Georgino, director of the Brea Redevelopment Agency.

She said the company will not determine the tax benefit of BankAmerica’s decision to move back into the facility until next year, when the office is appraised. But “the employee base is very important to the city,” she added.

Brokers and city officials say the bank will never recoup its hefty purchase price. Even fully leased, the building would only sell for $50 million to $60 million, brokers say. Last year the vacant building was appraised at $26 million, according to city officials.

Brokers say the building’s size as well as some of its features have discouraged prospective buyers. “It’s almost like a mini-city unto itself,” said Tom Abel of CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. in Anaheim. Few companies looking for office space are big enough to use the whole building, he added.

The structure, which was custom built for Security Pacific in the early 1980s, has escalators instead of elevators, temperature-controlled rooms that were built to house large computer banks, and a power plant that can provide electricity for the entire building.

Real estate insiders speculate that the bank decided to move employees into the facility because it would be easier to consolidate operations there and sell off other, smaller offices.

However, the bank still plans to sell the Brea facility once it’s fully occupied. If it finds a buyer, the bank will then lease the building, according to Gordon Simmering, president of Providence, R.I.-based Corporate Properties Ltd., which is handling the sale. The bank plans to begin moving employees into the building in mid-April, said spokeswoman Janet Papalia.