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!
