Agency That Will Sell Failed S&Ls;’ Assets May Open Costa Mesa Office

The new federal agency responsible for selling the assets of failed savings and loans is setting up an office in Southern California--possibly in Costa Mesa--to dispose of about $21 billion in foreclosed real estate and other assets held by 22 insolvent thrifts in the state.

The Resolution Trust Corp., created by federal law in August, is looking for office space for 200 to 500 employees, according to Anthony Scalzi, director of the RTC’s Western regional office in Denver.

The wide range in the number of possible employees reflects some still-undecided operational issues confronting RTC’s leadership, Scalzi said.

While RTC officials in Washington said the office would be located in Costa Mesa, Scalzi said that no decision has yet been made.

He said the agency expects to find an office--without the help of real estate brokers--sometime during the first three months of 1990.

An RTC office in Orange County makes sense because the county is home to more thrift failures--13--than any other county in the state. Among the assets RTC would have to liquidate are those from such multibillion-dollar institutions as Pacific Savings Bank in Costa Mesa.

Currently, the western regional operation employs about 135 people, mostly employees from the liquidation offices of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Scalzi said. He expects the total number to grow to 1,000 employees for the seven years that the RTC will be in existence.

The Denver office, which oversees 52 failed S&Ls; in 13 western states, including California, is also looking for quarters in Phoenix where 200 to 500 employees will begin liquidating $9.2 billion in assets from five failed Arizona S&Ls.;

In addition, the Phoenix office will be responsible for disposing of more than $4 billion in assets from Lincoln Savings & Loan, the insolvent Irvine thrift that invested heavily in Arizona real estate.

The RTC is handling only S&Ls; that failed or were otherwise put under conservatorship or receivership since the beginning of the year.

In Orange County, those would include Lincoln, Pacific Savings and American Interstate Savings & Loan in Newport Beach, as well as liquidating the assets of closed or sold S&Ls;, including Perpetual Savings Assn. in Santa Ana and First California Savings Bank in Orange.

Assets from failed S&Ls; that were sold or closed in previous years--such as American Savings & Loan in Irvine or American Diversified Savings Bank in Costa Mesa--are being handled by another federal agency that, like the RTC, is operated by the FDIC.