THE 7 BEST OFFICE VALUES: Anaheim, Orange, Santa Monica Business Park, Beverly Hills East, Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown Long Beach, Airport / Fox Hills

Finding bargain rents in Southern California office space has suddenly gotten a lot harder. With the economy rebounding, businesses are gobbling up more floors, and a lack of new construction has made renting an office more pricey than most company owners are used to.

But there are still some good values in Los Angeles and Orange counties--at least seven places where tenants’ dollars stretch. Rents in these areas have failed to keep pace with other hot sectors of the market, and office space is still relatively easy to find.

Plus, each of these markets has something besides bargain rents to offer, such as easy freeway access, amenities like restaurants and retail shops, or a prestigious address. Brokers and analysts say these are Southern California’s “best buys.”

Downtown Los Angeles

Landlords in the region’s biggest business district are cutting deals on prime high-rise space after losing several corporate headquarters in recent years to mergers and cutbacks. Vacancy in the 30-million-square-foot market is now averaging 22%, according to Cushman Realty Corp.

Concessions such as free rent, discounted parking and renovation allowances have become standard, and many plush high-rise buildings have scores of empty floors just waiting for companies to move in.

Downtown lease rates also cost 20% to 45% less than many Westside markets, ranging anywhere from $1 to $1.50 a square foot per month for the area’s finest buildings.

“Prices have been so low for the last five years that the difference between Class A space and Class C space was negligible. We’ve seen a lot of people move up from older buildings into much newer, nicer space,” said Whitley Collins, a vice president with CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc.’s downtown office.

Although downtown L.A. lacks the retail shops and street level parking of many other markets, it is, as many brokers are fond of saying, “equally inconvenient for everyone.” Its central location and access to freeways and rail puts it in reach of bosses and their employees. And there are plenty of restaurants and health clubs to divert employees on their lunch hours.

Still, luring back firms from other parts of the city has been difficult. Many executives view downtown as a crime-riddled “ghost town” and have headed to the glossier environs of Century City or Burbank, says Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County.

But affordable space in those markets is quickly drying up, so some firms are returning to the city’s core, including insurance broker Johnson & Higgins, which is leaving Century City.

Downtown Long Beach

Ocean air. Good restaurants. Inexpensive rent. Downtown Long Beach is quite a steal, if you can handle its location halfway between Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The office market there took a big hit during the early 1990s as companies folded or merged operations, driving the vacancy rate in modern high-rise buildings up to 30%.

That pushed lease rates down to between $1.20 and $2 a square foot per month for space in the city’s newer, sleeker buildings, including Landmark Square and the World Trade Center.

“It’s definitely much more economical than anything we looked at in L.A. and Orange County,” said David A. French, vice president of KBMH Construction, a division of Kaufman & Broad Home Corp.

KBMH is consolidating its 30-employee operations from Westwood and Newport Beach into the Catalina Landing area in December. Its new waterfront building, 320 Golden Shore, contains a small gym and restaurant. Shuttles leave for the shops and restaurants of trendy Pine Avenue every seven minutes.

Analysts and tenants praise the pro-business attitude of Long Beach city government and its ability to process permits for tenant construction quickly. The area is accessible via the San Diego and Long Beach freeways, Pacific Coast Highway and the Metro Rail Blue Line.

“It’s the No. 1 sleeper market of Southern California,” said Jack Rodman, partner in the Los Angeles office of E&Y; Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group.

Anaheim

Renting office space in Orange County’s posh suburban markets of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Irvine has become a much more expensive proposition than it was just a year and a half ago.

Not so in Anaheim. During the 1990s, office buildings emptied out as firms downsized and Disney built its own quarters. Although the economic upswing has reversed the slide, the area has been slower to recover. More than 300,000 square feet of office space is now available throughout the city.

These offices rent for an average of $1.47 a foot--40% to 50% cheaper than the John Wayne Airport area, according to CB Commercial.

Anaheim’s central location is favored by bottom-line-oriented finance, insurance and real estate companies who are more interested in reasonable rents than funky, hip digs. The drawback?

“There aren’t so many hotshot restaurants in the area,” said Dan Mitchell, a vice president with Voit Commercial Brokerage in Anaheim. That should change in the next few years as the Sportstown entertainment project and Disneyland expansion take shape. Street and landscaping improvements are also underway to improve the city’s curb appeal to visitors.

Orange

Just over the Santa Ana Freeway in Orange, companies can find large blocks of vacant office space in a group of 14 mid- to high-rise office buildings euphemistically called the City. Vacancy in these 1970s- and 1980s-era buildings is running much higher than the rest of the county at 20.16%. Higher vacancy has meant lower rents, $1.46 a foot on average, according to CB Commercial. Like Anaheim, the area’s primary draw is its reasonable lease rates and a central location--not fabulous restaurants and beautiful landscaping.

But a new entertainment and retail center scheduled to open next fall should give tenants a place to hang out and an alternative to brown-bagging it.

Outlet mall developer Mills Corp. has torn down the old City shopping center to build CityMills, a huge retail and entertainment center that will house a 30-screen theater. Other dining and recreation tenants are expected to be announced next month.

Santa Monica Business Park

With its trendy eateries and ocean views, Santa Monica has become a must-have address for such creative businesses as advertising and entertainment. But as the popularity of the city has soared, so have rents.

Only a small pocket of buildings in the city remain affordable, including Santa Monica Business Park. The cluster of 12 low-rise office buildings near Ocean Park Boulevard and Centinela Avenue next to the Santa Monica Municipal Airport has attracted companies like game maker Activision Inc. and American Golf Corp. to move from other Westside locations. While rents in the rest of Santa Monica averaged $2.41 a foot in the second quarter, tenants were snapping up space here for less than $1.95 a foot.

Although the small pocket of offices is removed from the beach and Third Street Promenade, it’s within walking distance of 15 trendy restaurants, including DC-3, Il Forno and Vito. A health club and two inexpensive restaurants are also in the complex. At last count, 130,000 square feet was available for lease in the center, which is owned mostly by Transpacific Development Co.

Beverly Hills East

Executives who want to impress clients with a prestigious address but don’t want to pay prestige prices have discovered Beverly Hills East, the area outside the preferred but pricey “Golden Triangle.”

The market stretches east down Wilshire Boulevard from Doheny Drive to San Vicente Boulevard. All but a few of the buildings are modest structures built during the 1970s, but the location is close to many Westside attractions, and it still carries a certain amount of snob appeal.

Entertainment companies rent here, as well as attorneys and accountants who want to be close to their Beverly Hills homes. Although the district has fewer shops and restaurants within walking distance than the rest of the 90210 ZIP Code, its rents are about 35% cheaper, ranging from $1.65 to $2.10 a foot, said Gary Weiss, a tenant broker with Julien J. Studley Inc.

“Landlords there just haven’t reacted to the rising market,” Weiss said. Several hundred thousand square feet are available in various buildings.

Airport/Fox Hills

This stretch along the San Diego Freeway just north of the Los Angeles International Airport is hardly sleek or glamorous. But offices in the area are convenient for executives who do a lot of traveling, and they are easily accessible to employees.

High-tech and entertainment firms have been migrating to the airport from more expensive Westside markets because they can get more building for their money and still be close to the coastal communities where their executives live.

Rents of $1.40 to $1.65 a square foot will lease space in some of the newest office complexes.

Although there aren’t many places to play or eat in the area, an entertainment center and a 22-screen theater, planned by developer J.H. Snyder Co., are expected to go up late next year. The announcement of retail tenants is still pending.

Brokers are also betting that when the long-awaited Playa Vista project begins development, the area will become more alluring to entertainment vendors.

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Do you know of a market with outstanding office values? Send your suggestions to Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, 90053.