Orange County Blog

Now, with less SanTana property!

Walk by the CityPlace lofts during the night, and you'll quickly reach for your cell phone for illumination. The SanTana development, created by controversial grease-a-palm developer Robert Bisno, is a spectacular disaster; lofts that once went for $700,000 are now going for half that rate, if not more--and still, many sit alone.

Perhaps this is why the latest edition of the Greater Santa Ana Business Alliance auto-erotic rag called CityLine published a small note letting readers know he has sold off a chunk of his CityPlace holdings for a couple of million dollars. I don't have the paper in front of me, and I'm not sure if the land in question holds lofts or the land on which he proposed to build a 27-story tower, but what's undisputable is that Bisno is as hurting for money to fund his Robert Moses dreams as SanTana's other big-time, Claudia Alvarez-owning developer, Michael Harrah. An assignment for those interested: compare Harrah's real-estate holdings in SanTana from 2004 to today, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Click here for a foodier take on CityPlace's troubles!