The distinctive former headquarters of the Christian media company Trinity Broadcasting Network in Costa Mesa has sold for $44.5 million, clearing the way for new housing.<\/p>\n
The purchase of the ornate palazzo-style structure by Meritage Homes was expected after city officials in August approved Meritage\u2019s plan to build 122 townhouses and 20 single-family homes on the site just south of the 405 Freeway.<\/p>\n
Trinity, one of the world\u2019s largest religious television networks, sold its Costa Mesa complex in 2017 after describing it as obsolete. The center dates to 1978.<\/p>\n
It was most recently owned by Khoshbin Co., a Costa Mesa real estate company that positioned the property as an event venue. <\/p>\n
Khoshbin paid $22 million for the six-acre property in 2021, according to real estate data provider CoStar.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spent over $1 million improving the site, beautifying it, and I think the neighborhood really enjoys seeing some life [come back] into the property,\u201d Manny Khoshbin told the city Planning Commission<\/a> last year. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been getting a lot of requests for events, weddings and birthdays, because it\u2019s such a beautiful landscape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The structure across the freeway from South Coast Plaza on Bear Street will be torn down to make way for the new housing. It has been a subject of fascination for years.<\/p>\n \u201cWith its classical columns, mirrors, faux gold and white marble everything, the Trinity compound\u2019s look is \u2018Gone With the Wind\u2019 meets Caesars Palace,\u201d The Times wrote in 1998<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhite walls are adorned with gold-framed floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Visitors climb the sweeping white marble stairway and come upon a 15-foot-tall statue of Michael the Archangel, his wings spread, his left foot planted on Satan\u2019s head, hovering over the gilded grandeur,\u201d the Times article said back then. <\/p>\n The gold-painted dome ceiling has a florid original mural of angels that Trinity Broadcasting founder Paul Crouch called \u201cOrange County\u2019s own Sistine Chapel.\u201d<\/p>\n It will take about two years to redevelop the site as housing, Meritage told the city.<\/p>\n