Is Mike Harrah Preparing to Sell the Santora Building to Free Up Money for One Broadway Plaza?


The big rumor going around SanTana's Artist's Village is that Mike Harrah–once a proverbial lord of real estate in the city, but more like King Lear in recent years as he's been unloading property to raise funds for his much-promised, much-desired 37-story Freudian monument to himself, One Broadway Plaza–is getting ready to sell off the Santora Building, the glorious old structure that houses Memphis, another restaurant, and art galleries.
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Multiple sources have told the Weekly that many prospective buyers have toured the building in the past couple of days, and these bourbon-glazed eyes saw Harrah himself one morning outside the building with his henchman vendido of a property manager. No listing has popped up yet–then again, it's probably buried under the hundreds of properties currently on sale in the Banana Republic (if Old Man Bren wasn't so damn scared of Mexicans, he could make a KILLING here…).

If Harrah does indeed sell, it'll come as a relief to the few remaining artists in the Santora (who have long complained about their landlord's lackadaisical approach to building maintenance) and to historical preservationists who know that Harrah treats historical buildings the way a three-year-old fucks around with Legos.

We'd call Harrah for a response, but he'd sooner take a phone call from the Voice of OC than us. So, gentle readers: what have YOU heard???

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