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The owner of a nine-floor office building in Santa Ana recently filed an application with City Hall to convert the high-rise into a mixed-use project with 184 residential units and ground-floor retail.
It is the latest proposal in Orange County to convert an existing office building into residential property with commercial uses.
The “1200 Building” at 1200 N. Main St., near Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana’s Civic Center district, was built in 1970 as an office building and is currently owned by Commercial Marketplace LLC and Top Universe LLC.
Both companies are based in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra and are subsidiaries of Soundwill Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong real estate company, and 42-year-old Hing Tat Chan, who serves as the organization’s chairman of the board.
The conversion application, which was filed by Commercial Marketplace, calls for the nine-story tower to become a mixed-use property with 184 residential units, including six live-work units, 2,394 square feet of ground-floor commercial/retail uses, a 1,561-square-foot leasing office and a 2,231-square-foot amenity area.
Commercial Marketplace’s application requires the city of Santa Ana to undergo an administrative review before forwarding it to the city council for consideration.
The conversion of the 225,877-square-foot building could move forward if the city council endorses Commercial Marketplace’s plans and approves a development project application.
No other information about the project was made available by the city. Commercial Marketplace and Top Universe did not respond to a request for comment.
Soundwill Holdings and Hing Tat Chan
Soundwill Holdings was founded in Hong Kong in 1979 by Chan’s mother, Kam Chu Grace Foo, who still serves the company as an executive.
Chan’s sister, Wai Ling Chan, is also an executive with Soundwill Holdings, which manages a portfolio of real estate properties in Mainland China. Soundwill Holdings specializes in development and leasing of commercial, office and residential buildings in China.
At least two of the company’s subsidiaries—Commercial Marketplace and Top Universe—are managed by Chan, who joined Soundwill Holdings in 2004.
Chan earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Boston University and owned his own information technology business prior to joining Soundwill Holdings.
The 1200 Building
Commercial Marketplace and Top Universe have owned the 1200 Building since 2021, according to CoStar data. The subsidiaries of Soundwill Holdings bought the 1200 Building from Bitro Corp. for $11 million, or $81 per square foot, in December 2021, also per CoStar.
The building’s current tenants include Adult Mental Health Services and Diamond Parking Service.
Loopnet.com, an online marketplace for commercial real estate, had the 1200 Building, also known as “Main Street Lofts,” listed as for sale on its website. The 1200 Building, according to LoopNet, is “an excellent candidate for conversion” and part of a larger trend of turning office buildings into mixed-use developments.
“Over the past few market cycles, adaptive reuse has produced some of the most prized urban spaces around the country, contributing positively to housing needs, community reinvestment and the preservation of historic structures,” the LoopNet listing said.
Several office buildings in Orange County have already been targeted for mixed-use or residential conversions, including a 92,000-square-foot structure in Los Alamitos, a 144-unit apartment project proposed in Corona del Mar and an application to convert a two-story Chase Bank near Fashion Island into an eight-floor tower with 120 rentals. n