Crews begin State Farm demolition

Former headquarters of insurance group are being torn down to make way for home furnishings shopping center.COSTA MESA -- Concrete, insulation and rebar were piled outside the former regional headquarters of State Farm Insurance on Tuesday as a demolition crew worked to tear down the building to make way for a planned retail center.

Tuesday was the beginning of work to tear down the main structure, construction supervisor Mike Brion said. Workers had been busy gutting the inside of the building since late October.

“They cut the place up pretty good,” Brion said.

By Monday, the building was a husk. The interior walls and ceiling were gone, revealing several steel posts and metal fixtures that hung from the roof. A gaping hole in one of the building’s white exterior walls was visible from the parking lot, and in one spot, several red tiles had fallen from the roof.

In mid-September, Irvine-based Birtcher Development and Investments announced a list of tenants for the planned South Coast Home Furnishings Centre, which is set to be built after the former State Farm building near Sunflower and Hyland avenues is gone.

The announced tenants would take up 55% of the planned retail space and the prime location is set to be occupied by Wickes Furniture.

Bjorn Davidson, Birtcher’s development manager, said no additional tenants have been signed to the planned shopping center since the September announcement, though he expects to ink more deals by year’s end.

“We should hopefully have them signed by the middle of December,” Davidson said.

The day Birtcher announced its tenant list, the company hosted a paintball tournament inside the building and invited real estate professionals from around Orange County to blast paint at each other for the afternoon.

Costa Mesa’s fire and police departments used the building for more serious purposes by conducting training exercises in the structure.

In one training scenario, firefighters filled the building with smoke and practiced rescuing a firefighter who had been hurt during a blaze, Fire Department Capt. Curt Yoder said.

“It’s very rare that we have a building they’re going to totally tear down and have a license to do whatever we want,” Yoder said.

Ontario-based Fullmer Construction was hired to for the demolition project and to build the new retail center. Brion said his schedule calls for the former State Farm building to be down by Nov. 19.

Work leading to construction of the planned shopping center is expected to start as soon as demolition wraps up.

The expected budget for the South Coast Home Furnishings Centre is $90 million. Stores there are scheduled to be in business by early 2007.

20051109ipny7vknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Workers on Tuesday tear down the building that used to house State Farm Insurance’s regional headquarters in Costa Mesa.