Amazon Continues Space Spree with $165M Brea Buy

Amazon is continuing its buying spree with the $165 million acquisition of the Brea Bank of America campus at 275 Valencia Ave. The 31.6-acre site has been Bank of America’s home for nearly 40 years.

Bank of America recently said it will be vacating the 637,503-square-foot Brea call center it has leased since 1982. Bank of America’s lease was signed through 2023 but it is terminating by summer 2022 because a “property owner” is terminating its lease early.

BofA is the original occupant of the property since its construction in 1983 for Security Pacific National Bank. Security was later acquired by Bank of America, which then sold the structure in a sale/leaseback deal in the 1990s.

The campus’ last big sale was back in 2014 when Lexington Realty Trust sold it to Orange County-based Greenlaw Partners in a venture with Cerberus Capital Management for $110 million. That ranked as the year’s largest sale in Orange County.

The property is the largest single non-owner/user office building in Orange County. The campus is six miles north of Anaheim, 20 miles south of Los Angeles and 2 miles from State Route 57.

Amazon is evaluating whether to turn the office space into a distribution center but has yet to file any plans. A redevelopment could start late next year at the earliest.