Santa Ana developer Michael Harrah has bought the 14 acres of land surrounding The Orange County Register for a reported $34 million.
Harrah, who already owns the Register office building, was part of a failed bid to buy the newspaper, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside and related real estate from bankrupt Freedom Communications. He did not return calls seeking comment on the sale, first reported by the Orange County Business Journal.
Digital First Media, which won court approval to buy the two newspapers, passed the Santa Ana land to Harrah as part of the newspaper sale, which closed March 31, according to Ron Hasse, president and publisher of the Southern California News Group, which includes the Register. A parcel in Riverside, near The Press-Enterprise, was sold to another party for an undisclosed price, Hasse said.
Digital First’s real estate sale is part of a corporate philosophy to lease the facilities it uses, Hasse said.
“We want to concentrate on improving the business operations, not manage real estate,” Hasse said.
Digital First is leasing office space at Register headquarters in Santa Ana for its non-production employees for a year while the company looks for other office locations in Orange County. Digital First has a longer-term lease with Harrah for the Register’s printing plant on the land just sold.
