The Aliso Viejo office of Lennar Corp. is betting big on housing near sports centers, and not just in Anaheim.

The Miami-based builder and partner LNR Property Corp. are set to pay $80 million to Anschutz Entertainment Group for the last developable parcel next to Staples Center, according to sources of Los Angeles Business Journal reporter Andy Fixmer.

Word is that Lennar plans three condominium towers and a 250,000-square-foot retail center. The 4-acre parcel borders Figueroa Street.

Michael Roth, an Anschutz Entertainment spokesman, confirmed that his company was working on a deal with LNR Property.

“AEG is currently in discussions,” Roth told Fixmer. “However, our policy is not to comment on specifics of negotiations.”

Anschutz Entertainment, which owns most of Staples Center, has been planning an entertainment and retail complex around it.

The $1 billion project could include a 1,200-room hotel, a 7,000-seat live theater, radio and television broadcast studios, a nightclub and several restaurants.

As for Lennar, it has more ambitious high-rise plans in Anaheim. It seeks to build 11 housing towers ranging in size from 23 to 33 stories, according to the city.

As it stands now, Lennar plans 2,681 housing units and 133,216 square feet of shops and offices. The builder’s Anaheim plans are somewhat fluid at this stage. It’s repeatedly come back to Anaheim with plans for more housing.

Lennar isn’t the only big player in the Platinum Triangle these days.

D.R. Horton Inc., based in Fort Worth, Texas, bought an office building and a medical building on 3.5 acres in the area near Anaheim Stadium.

The homebuilder plans to raze the two buildings, which total 65,000 square feet, to make room for housing.

The sale price of the land at 2100 E. Katella Ave. wasn’t disclosed. One can assume it went for a pretty penny, since D.R. Horton plans about 70 condominiums to the acre.

The more houses, condos or apartments a builder can squeeze on an acre of land, the more it can pay for it.

Lennar is said to have paid up to $4 million an acre for land in the Triangle. It plans some very dense housing in the form of the high-rises.

D.R. Horton is set to build 251 condos or apartments and 9,764 square feet of shops, according to the city.

Carl Johnson of Voit Commercial Brokerage LP’s Irvine office represented the builder in the sale. Trent Walker of Voit’s Irvine office represented the seller, Kayco Plaza Partners LP.

Not every site near Angel Stadium is going to housing developers.

Newport Beach’s Burnham USA Equities Inc. recently bought about 3 acres on Katella Avenue from Chicago’s Equity Office Properties Trust with an eye to putting up two buildings and leasing them to eateries.

Scott Burnham, who heads the developer, said he plans 22,000 square feet of new restaurants and cafes on the site. A Hooters restaurant, which occupies a freestanding 7,000-square-foot building, is set to stay, he said.

Jeff Moore of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. brokered the sale, and Andrew Buie of CB is marketing the buildings for lease.

The project is dubbed The Shops at Stadium Towers, though it won’t have much shopping. Burnham said Equity likes his plan, which it sees as a good fit to its 12-story tower at Stadium Towers Plaza.

Equity has entitlement for another tower at the site.

The deal is Burnham’s second buy from Equity in the area. He declined to give the sale price of the land.

In a previous deal, Burnham picked up 5 acres of land in Orange near The Block from Equity. He built a 46,000-square-foot building and leased it to Best Buy Co., which opened earlier this year.

Burnham said he has some other projects in the works in the area.

One project: He plans to replace a bowling alley with housing in Orange.

Deal Maker

Brian Malliet recently paid $3.3 million for a 24,000-square-foot building in Costa Mesa that will serve as the new headquarters for his BKM Development Co., according to his broker Louis Tomaselli of Voit.

Not content to simply enjoy his new digs, Malliet has a plan to generate income at 3188 Pullman Ave. He’s set to renovate the building and lease out the space he’s not using, which is most of it.

Tomaselli, Mitch Zehner and Mike Boomer of Voit’s Orange office, and John Collins of Voit’s Irvine office, represented both the seller, Redhill Pullman LLC, and BKM.

Malliet also has bought three other buildings at Red Hill Pullman Business Center next to his new headquarters. They total 150,000 square feet.

He’s set to divide those three buildings into 19 condominium-style office units and resell them.

This is the guy who paid $40 million in May for Panasonic Corp. of North America’s 540,000-square-foot office and distribution campus in Cypress—one of the biggest industrial deals of the past few years.

Malliet plans to renovate the two buildings and sell them.