Orange, California
Who owns the City of Orange, California: hospital campuses on La Veta Avenue, The Outlets at Orange and the City Drive towers, County justice land, and a deed index that names owners only by name, not address.
8 buildings · 5 with an owner established · 24 sources · 6 tier A · 2 tier B · prepared 2026-11-01
Can you find out who owns it?
California has no public online land-title register. Orange lies in Orange County, where the Clerk-Recorder offers a free online grantor/grantee index of documents recorded since 1982; it is searched by name, document number or date, not by address, and shows no images. Documents can be viewed free at the Recorder's offices or copied for $1 a page plus $1 for certification. The Assessor sells roll products only at its counter or by written request, and the County's open map service gives assessed values per parcel but no owner names. There is no price-paid dataset.
Is ownership public?Public, but one paid search at a time
Cost of one title search$1 per page per document copy, plus $1 per certification (viewing free at Recorder offices)
Bulk ownership dataNone published
Sale pricesNo transaction data published
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHOC Hospital Main Campus (Rady Children's Health) 1201 W La Veta Ave 425,524 sq ft (Bill Holmes Tower alone) · 7 floors |
Institutional | Not established a paid title search would answer it The County's tax map lists two APNs at 1201 W La Veta Ave (041-091-04, total assessed $587,826,772 — the highest in the city — and 041-091-05, $69,941,838). The map gives no owner. The 990 filer at this address is Childrens Hospital of Orange County, which had $1.81B of total assets and $85M of secured mortgages at FY2023 end (ProPublica extract). Wikipedia says the campus has 334 beds and that the $563M, 425,524 sq ft Bill Holmes Tower opened in 2013. Only a deed copy would establish title. |
Not established | —A |
| UCI Medical Center 101 The City Dr S |
Institutional | The Regents of the University of California Wikipedia: 'Under pressure from Brown, the UC purchased the OCMC in 1976 from the county.' Bldg 1 is at 101 The City Drive South, with 411 licensed beds; the seven-story Douglas Hospital was finished in late 2011. On the County tax map the 101 The City Dr S parcels carry use code 601 and zero or null assessed value, consistent with public ownership. Tier B: the purchase comes from Wikipedia, and the exempt status from the County map (s5). |
Institution | —B |
| The Outlets at Orange 20 City Blvd W 864,082 sq ft |
Retail | Simon Property Group 100% (fee) Simon's FY2025 10-K lists 'Outlets at Orange, The — CA Orange (Los Angeles) — Fee 100.0% — Acquired 2007 — 98.0%' leased, 864,082 sq ft. Anchors include Barnes & Noble, Dave & Buster's, AMC Theatres, Nordstrom Rack and Bloomingdale's the Outlet Store. Schedule III gives a gross carrying amount of $291.5M (land $65.0M), with no mortgage shown. The County tax map assesses APN 231-131-41 at $211,152,868. It was formerly The City Shopping Center (1970–96) and The Block at Orange (s22). |
REIT | —A |
| City Tower 333 City Blvd W 435,177 rentable sq ft · 20 floors |
Office | Opal Holdings The REIT's 8-K says it sold City Tower (435,177 rentable sq ft on about 4.92 acres) on 27 Jul 2021 for $150.5M 'to a purchaser unaffiliated with the Company'. REBusiness Online (s10) names Opal Holdings, a New York investment firm, as the buyer and says the tower is 20 stories. The REIT's predecessor had bought it on 6 Mar 2018 from DOF II City Tower LLC for $147.3M (s8). The County assesses APN 231-061-50 at $102,346,800. No later deed was checked. Tier B: the buyer comes from the trade press. |
Private company | $150.5M 2021-07 Sold 27 Jul 2021 by Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT (8-K); buyer named by REBusiness B |
| St. Joseph Hospital of Orange 1100 W Stewart Dr |
Institutional | Not established a paid title search would answer it The County tax map assesses APN 041-080-45 at 1100 W Stewart Dr at $161,471,669 and names no owner. The IRS 990 filer at this address is St Joseph Hospital of Orange (EIN 95-1643359), with total assets of $979.7M at December 2023 (ProPublica extract). Title to the land is not stated in any source opened here. |
Not established | —A |
| Orange County Civic Center West — Theo Lacy Facility, Juvenile Hall and Lamoreaux Justice Center 301–561 The City Dr S |
Civic | County of Orange The County's own property list (Oct 2025) records as County-owned (Owned_Leas 'Y'): Theo Lacy jail administration, barracks and modules at 501 The City Drive South; Juvenile Hall and its primary campus at 331; the Superior Court Lamoreaux Justice Center at 341; the Manchester Office Building at 301; the Orangewood Children and Family Center at 401; and two parking structures at 313 and 343. The County's rows for The City Drive South run to more than 40 records. |
Government | —A |
| Renaissance at Uptown Orange Uptown Orange (City Blvd area) |
Residential | Essex Property Trust Essex's FY2025 10-K lists Renaissance at Uptown Orange in Orange, CA: mid-rise, 460 units, built 2007, acquired 2014, 97% occupied. Schedule III shows land of $27.87M and a gross carrying amount of $157.08M, with no encumbrance shown. The street address is not given in the filing, so the County parcel was not matched. |
REIT | —A |
| The Village at Orange 1500 E Village Way 855,911 sq ft |
Retail | Not established a paid title search would answer it The mall opened on 16 Aug 1971 as the Orange Mall. Its enclosed interior closed on 31 Jan 2024; the outward-facing stores and remaining anchors stay open (Wikipedia). No filing or public record opened here names the owner of the mall parcels, and the County tax map gives no owner. City of Orange planning documents could not be read because cityoforange.org is an Akamai 403. |
Not established | —A |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
The most valuable ground in Orange is hospital land on La Veta Ave and Stewart Dr, then the City Blvd retail and office district by the I-5/SR-22/SR-57 interchange, then apartment blocks on Town and Country Rd. Values come from the Treasurer-Tax Collector's secured tax map, queried on 2026-11-01 against the County's ORANGE boundary and checked parcel by parcel with a centroid test. The map names no owners.
Highest assessed parcel$587,826,772
APN 041-091-04, 1201 W La Veta Ave (CHOC main campus); land $12.0M, improvements $575.8M. Source s5, OC Treasurer-Tax Collector map, read 2026-11-01.
Parcels assessed above $50M34
Count of parcels whose centroid falls inside the city boundary (36 intersect it; 2 lie in Anaheim). Includes 557 S Main St ($335.4M), 20 City Blvd W ($211.2M), 1100 W Stewart Dr ($161.5M), 155 University Dr ($157.5M) and 3063 W Chapman Ave ($153.0M). Source s5, 2026-11-01.
Total assessed value, parcels touching the city boundary≈$33.6B (land ≈$20.7B)
Sum of tav and alv over the 40,020 parcels that intersect the ORANGE polygon. Edge parcels in neighbouring cities are included, so treat this as an upper bound, not the City's certified roll (whose ACFR could not be read). Source s5, 2026-11-01.
City Tower price per sq ft (2021)≈$346 per rentable sq ft
$150.5M ÷ 435,177 sq ft, from the seller's 27 Jul 2021 8-K (s9). Arithmetic on stated figures, not a valuation.
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Orange's big public holders sit on two strips: The City Drive, where the County's jail, juvenile hall and court complex adjoins the University of California's medical centre, and the Santiago Creek and Santa Ana River corridors, held by the County and the water district. Chapman University is the one institution buying ordinary houses: it owned 87 homes in Old Towne by 2014. The City's own holdings could not be counted because cityoforange.org refuses automated requests.
| Name | Type | Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| County of Orange The County's CEO Real Estate property list records 107 active County-owned rows with City = ORANGE. They include the Theo Lacy Facility, Juvenile Hall, Lamoreaux Justice Center and Orangewood centre on The City Drive South, and the Sheriff's training centre at 1800–1900 W Katella Ave. Also listed are OC Public Works yards on N Glassell St and W Collins Ave, a housing authority site, and canyon assets with Orange mailing addresses: Irvine, Santiago Oaks and Peters Canyon regional parks, the OC Zoo and the Villa Park landfill. Some of these lie in unincorporated territory. Rows are buildings and lots, not parcels or acres. |
Government | 107 active owned records with an Orange address (Oct 2025)A |
| Orange County Water District OCWD states that it 'owns approximately 1,500 acres of land in Anaheim and Orange, including a six-mile stretch of the Santa Ana River', managed for groundwater recharge and habitat. The split between the two cities is not given. |
Government | ≈1,500 acres in Anaheim and OrangeA |
| The Regents of the University of California UC bought the former Orange County Medical Center from the County in 1976 (Wikipedia). It is now UCI Medical Center, with 411 licensed beds. The County tax map shows the 101 The City Dr S parcels as use code 601 with no assessed value. No acreage is stated in the sources opened. |
Institution | UCI Medical Center campus, 101 The City Dr SB |
| Chapman University Chapman's own magazine (2014): 'the University buys residential properties when they come up for sale and rents them to faculty and staff. To date the University owns 87 homes in the historic district, 50 of which are officially designated historic structures.' Wikipedia gives the Orange campus as 90 acres. The university's FY2023 990 extract shows total assets of $2.21B and $175M of secured mortgages. No newer count of houses was found. |
Institution | 87 Old Towne homes (2014); 90-acre campusA |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Orange is built out, and new homes come in small infill tracts. Census permits show 232 units in 2024 (66 single-family and 166 in three 5+-unit buildings) and only 70 single-family units in 2025, with no multifamily permits that year. The largest recent greenfield entitlement is the former Sully-Miller sand-and-gravel pit on Santiago Creek: 128 homes approved in 2019, then re-mapped as a 22-lot tract in 2020–22. No source opened names production builders active in the city; the large public builders' 10-Ks report only at 'Orange County' level.
| Name | Type | Units |
|---|---|---|
| All builders (Census Building Permits Survey) Orange city (place 53980): 2024, 66 one-unit buildings and 3 five-plus buildings with 166 units ($23.7M valuation); 2025, 70 one-unit permits ($21.6M) and no multifamily. Reported for all 12 months. |
Private company | 232 units 2024; 70 units 2025A |
| Milan REI X, LLC Named as 'Project Applicant' on the City of Orange's 27 Aug 2020 notice: a 15.4-acre site subdivided into 22 detached lots on 10.9 acres plus 4.5 acres of Santiago Creek open space. It replaced the 2019 Trails at Santiago Creek approval of 128 homes on 40.7 acres of a former sand and gravel mine. The person named as the contact is left out here. |
Developer | 22 single-family lots (Mabury Tentative Tract 18163)A |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Orange's institutional landlords are mostly industrial REITs holding small flex and warehouse buildings along Glassell St, Main St and the Trenton–Freedom industrial strip, plus one mall REIT and one apartment REIT. The large office towers on City Blvd changed hands among private funds: City Tower went from a distressed-loan fund to a non-traded REIT to a private New York firm. No office REIT's FY2025 10-K lists an Orange building (Kilroy and Healthpeak were checked).
| Name | Type | Floor area / assets in Orange |
|---|---|---|
| Simon Property Group The Outlets at Orange: fee simple, 100%, acquired 2007, 98.0% leased. Schedule III gross carrying amount $291.5M. |
REIT | 864,082 sq ft (one centre)A |
| Rexford Industrial Realty FY2025 10-K Item 2 rows in Orange: 1581 Main St (40,637 sq ft, acquired 2018); 445-449 Freedom Ave (92,647, 2019); 560 Main St (17,000, 2021); 2401-2421 Glassell St (4 buildings, 39,282 sq ft, 2021, with Schedule III land of $54.6M); 2390-2444 American Way (100,483 sq ft, built 2024). Schedule III gross for 2401-2421 Glassell is $68.3M. |
REIT | 5 properties, 8 buildings, 290,049 sq ftA |
| Essex Property Trust Renaissance at Uptown Orange: mid-rise, built 2007, acquired April 2014, 97% occupied; Schedule III gross $157.1M. Essex was the only one of five apartment REITs checked (Essex, Equity Residential, AvalonBay, UDR, Welltower) with an Orange row. |
REIT | 460 apartments (one community)A |
| Opal Holdings Bought City Tower, 333 City Blvd W, for $150.5M in July 2021 (seller's 8-K; buyer named by REBusiness Online). |
Private company | 435,177 sq ft (City Tower)B |
| Terreno Realty Schedule III: 1150 & 1250 W Trenton Ave, Orange, CA, acquired 2021; land $7.49M, gross $10.0M. The filing gives no floor area for these rows. |
REIT | 2 buildingsA |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Who holds title to the CHOC (1201 W La Veta Ave) and St. Joseph Hospital (1100 W Stewart Dr) campuses. The 990 filers sit at those addresses, but only an OC Clerk-Recorder deed copy ($1/page) would establish the owner.
- Current owner of The Village at Orange (1500 E Village Way) and any redevelopment application since its enclosed mall closed on 31 Jan 2024. City of Orange planning pages are behind an Akamai 403.
- Whether Opal Holdings still owns City Tower after 2021. No later filing was found.
- Owners of the Town and Country Rd apartment parcels (850, 1000, 1100, 1110 and 1235 W Town and Country Rd; County values $61M–$123M), 3063 W Chapman Ave ($153M) and 299 N State College Blvd ($120M). The County map gives values only.
- What occupies 557 S Main St (assessed $335.4M) and 155 University Dr ($157.5M), and who owns them.
- City of Orange land holdings, principal property taxpayers and certified assessed value. Its ACFR is on cityoforange.org, which refuses automated requests (Akamai 403, even on robots.txt).
- Land held by Orange Unified School District, Rancho Santiago CCD (Santiago Canyon College), Caltrans (I-5, SR-22, SR-55, SR-57) and the Irvine Company in East Orange (Santiago Hills). No source opened states their acreage in the city; the Irvine Company's site terms forbid automated access (per the us-irvine record) and it was not opened.
- Federal holdings in Orange. GSA's IOLP service host returned 403 on robots.txt and was not queried.
§
Sources
- RecorderWorks Grantor/Grantee Search — 'online searches of property documents recorded since 1982. Documents may be viewed free of charge or copied at a cost of $1.00 per page' — Orange County Clerk-Recorder · openA
- Obtaining Official Record Copies — 'Fees for requested copies are $1 per page plus an additional $1 for certification'; the online index 'will not allow you to view images' — Orange County Clerk-Recorder · openA
- Assessor Roll Products — 'ONLY AVAILABLE in-person at our Public Service Center or by written request' — Orange County Assessor · openA
- Change of Ownership & Transfer Processing FAQ — 'Purchase price and terms of the purchase are required under Section 480(c) of the R&T Code' (filed with the Assessor, not published) — Orange County Assessor · openA
- Secured Property Tax Information map service (TTC_Final, layer 0): APN, site address, land use code, land (alv), improvement (aiv) and total assessed value (tav) per parcel; no owner field. Queried 2026-11-01 against the layer 3 ORANGE city boundary (25.76 sq mi) — County of Orange Treasurer-Tax Collector, on OCgis · openA
- County of Orange Property List OCT2025 (map service layer 0), queried for City LIKE 'ORANGE' — 107 active owned records (City field is the mailing city, so it includes unincorporated canyon parks with an Orange address) — County of Orange CEO Real Estate, on OCgis · openA
- The Simon Property Group, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025 — Item 2 Mills table: 'Outlets at Orange, The CA Orange (Los Angeles) Fee 100.0% Acquired 2007 98.0% 864,082'; Schedule III: land $64,973K, buildings $211,322K, gross $291,497K, no encumbrance — US SEC / Simon Property Group · openA
- KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT Form 8-K (7 Mar 2018), Item 2.01: acquired City Tower (431,007 rentable sq ft on approx. 4.92 acres, Orange, California) from DOF II City Tower LLC for $147.3 million on 6 Mar 2018 — US SEC / KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT (now Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT) · openA
- Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT Form 8-K, Item 8.01: on 27 Jul 2021 sold City Tower (435,177 rentable sq ft, approx. 4.92 acres) 'to a purchaser unaffiliated with the Company' for $150.5 million; repaid $98.1 million of the mortgage — US SEC / Pacific Oak Strategic Opportunity REIT · openA
- Pacific Oak Sells Orange County Office Tower for $150.5M (11 Aug 2021) — 'Opal Holdings, a New York City-based real estate investment firm, was the buyer'; 20 stories, 333 City Blvd. — REBusiness Online · openA
- UCI Medical Center — 'Under pressure from Brown, the UC purchased the OCMC in 1976 from the county'; Bldg 1, 101 The City Drive South; 411 licensed beds — Wikipedia · openA
- Children's Hospital of Orange County (Rady Children's Health) — CHOC Hospital Main Campus – Orange, 334 beds; $563 million Bill Holmes Tower opened 2013, seven stories, 425,524 sq ft — Wikipedia · openA
- Nonprofit Explorer organization extracts (IRS Form 990): Childrens Hospital of Orange County (EIN 95-2321786, 1201 W La Veta Ave), St Joseph Hospital of Orange (EIN 95-1643359, 1100 W Stewart Dr), Chapman University (EIN 95-1643992, 1 University Dr) — ProPublica · openA
- Essex Property Trust, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025 — communities table: 'Renaissance at Uptown Orange, Orange, CA, Mid-rise, 460, 2007, 2014, 97%'; Schedule III: land $27,870K, gross $157,079K, acquired Apr-14 — US SEC / Essex Property Trust · openA
- Rexford Industrial Realty, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025 — Item 2 property table and Schedule III, Orange rows: 1581 N Main St, 445-449 Freedom Ave, 560 Main St, 2401-2421 Glassell St, 2390-2444 American Way — US SEC / Rexford Industrial Realty · openA
- Terreno Realty Corp Form 10-K FY2025 — Schedule III: '1150 & 1250 W. Trenton Ave, 2 [buildings], Orange, CA', land $7,491K, gross $9,998K, acquired 2021 — US SEC / Terreno Realty · openA
- Building Permits Survey, West Region place annual files we2024a.txt and we2025a.txt: Orange city, CA (place 53980, pop. 138,192) — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- CEQAnet SCH 2017031020 — Trails at Santiago Creek Project: NOD 24 Oct 2019 (128 single-family homes on 40.7 acres, ~68.5 acres open space, former sand and gravel mine); NOD 27 Aug 2020 Addendum (22 lots on 10.9 acres, applicant 'Milan REI X, LLC'); NOD 25 Oct 2022 Mabury Tentative Tract Map No. 18163 — California Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (CEQAnet) · openA
- Vegetation management — 'The Orange County Water District (OCWD) owns approximately 1,500 acres of land in Anaheim and Orange, including a six-mile stretch of the Santa Ana River' — Orange County Water District · openA
- A New Chapter for Old Towne (Chapman Magazine, 22 Jul 2014) — 'the University buys residential properties when they come up for sale and rents them to faculty and staff. To date the University owns 87 homes in the historic district, 50 of which are officially designated historic structures' — Chapman University Newsroom · openA
- Chapman University — infobox 'Campus 90 acres (36 ha)', Orange, California — Wikipedia · openA
- The Outlets at Orange — former The City Shopping Center (1970–1996) and The Block at Orange; 'developed by Mills Corporation and now owned by Simon Property Group' — Wikipedia · openA
- The Village at Orange — opened 16 Aug 1971 as the Orange Mall; 855,911 sq ft; enclosed interior closed 31 Jan 2024, outward-facing stores and anchors stay open — Wikipedia · openA
- OC Business Journal robots.txt — 'User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: /' (no OCBJ article was opened for this record) — Orange County Business Journal · openA