LAB Holding LLC, owner and developer of Anaheim Packing House and The CAMP, has bought the 18,053-square-foot Pep Boys service center on Bristol Street in Costa Mesa for $10.5 million, according to CoStar records.
The acquisition, which closed in August, marks one of the final pieces to the family-run firm’s plans for the surrounding SoBECA District, Managing Director Sebastian Sadeghi told the Business Journal.
SoBECA, an acronym for South on Bristol, Entertainment, Culture & Arts, starts at the corner of Bristol and Baker streets and spans two blocks on the east side of the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway. LAB Holding counts more than a dozen assets in this area with a mix of retail and office tenants.
The 18,053-square-foot site was the largest piece of land in the district that the family didn’t own, according to Sadeghi.
Sadeghi said the Pep Boys deal was a multi-year effort between his family’s firm and an affiliate of Icahn Enterprises. Icahn sold the automotive service brand in July to a subsidiary of Mavis Tire Express Services Corp. for approximately $700 million in cash, leading the company to start shedding Pep Boys real estate it still owned after the sale.
The business has always been a target for the developer because of its adjacency to The LAB Anti-Mall, developed and owned by the family, and its general location within the SoBECA district, according to the eldest Sadeghi.
LAB’s plans for the Pep Boys site, as part of “Project SoBECA,” will be revealed in the coming months. It also coincides with the current renovation at the anti-mall next door, which began in 2025.
Sadeghi also noted that his family’s firm has been investing in the SoBECA district since the opening of the anti-mall in 1993, which is considered a commercial anchor for the area for its focus on smaller businesses. The LAB family of companies has spent the last few decades also creating walkability between its properties by adding new signals, crosswalks and street parking within the 39-acre hub aligned with Costa Mesa’s urban plan adopted in 2006, which supports mixed-use development in that region.
The purchase follows six acquisitions for LAB in the past year, overseen by Sadeghi and his younger brothers, Dominic and Nikolai, who recently joined the firm.
Sebastian Sadeghi is the oldest son of LAB founders Shaheen and Linda Sadeghi and joined the Costa Mesa-based firm four years ago as managing director. Dominic and Nikolai followed suit in 2025 as director of leasing and director of operations, respectively.
“The boys will scale our acquisition and development pace, taking the models we have perfected over three decades and executing them with greater velocity,” Shaheen Sadeghi said in June.
LAB Holding received the Business Journal’s Family-Owned Business Award in 2024 for building and operating several retail centers and food hubs that feature carefully curated indie tenants instead of chains. Its name stands for “Little American Businesses.”
The company has completed approximately 50 projects as of today. Its goal is to continually “add more interesting places to visit in Orange County,” Sadeghi said.