I can imagine that anyone who could afford to make such a purchase would be "politically connected".
From the article:
“.......The 2009 bill authorizing the Department of General Services to sell the buildings (which, at 7.3 million square feet, amount to 43 percent of all the state’s office space) was hurriedly passed as part of an emergency budget measure. The bill’s title, “State property: Orange County Fair: inventory; leases; sale and leaseback” gave little hint of its import. In the third paragraph of subsection 2, it discussed entering “into a sale or long-term lease of certain listed properties,” which were identified several thousand words later.
After the bill’s passage, D.G.S. hired CB Richard Ellis (whose chairman, Richard C. Blum, is married to United States Senator Dianne Feinstein) to broker the sale. Its commission if the deal goes through will be $1.9 million. Three hundred entities submitted bids; 30 were invited to bid in the second round. By July, two bidders were left in the running.
.....In documents submitted to D.G.S., California First identifies a shifting roster of partners. One is Hines, a real estate company based in Houston. Another is CityView, the real estate investment company headed by Henry G. Cisneros, who served as federal secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
California First’s listed partners and the entity’s managing partners did not respond to e-mails or phone messages requesting comment. The lone exception was Mr. McKean. Though he is listed as one of three principal players in multiple offer letters, Mr. McKean wrote in an e-mail Thursday, “I have been an adviser to the group from time to time but am not in a position to know their current thinking.”
Michael Bustamante, former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Gray Davis who was hired as a spokesman by California First in September, said he did not know who California First’s partners were, and he declined a request that he attempt to find out. [End excerpt]