A bidding war has broken out over the striking, pyramid-shaped federal office building in Laguna Niguel.

The offers so far have more than doubled the asking price for the largely vacant Chet Holifield Federal Building.

The online auction for the striking “Ziggurat” building and the surrounding 89 acres began on June 5 and was scheduled to end on July 31 if bidding had died down by then. But bidding rules allow the auction to continue as long as there is active buyer interest.

This means that the auction for the property – considered a rare development opportunity in southern Orange County – will remain open for 24 hours after the current highest bid is exceeded.

The website of the General Services Administration, which is conducting the auction, showed four bids before 6 p.m. on Monday alone. Those bids increased the highest bid by $1.2 million. to $151.8 million. Since June 5, there have been 72 bids from three unidentified would-be owners. And bidding will run until at least Tuesday, August 27, at 6 p.m.

The first day of the auction was the busiest. 11 bids drove the price from $70 million (original bid) to $125.3 million, an increase of 79 percent.

The next bid came just before the original deadline. Nine bids on July 30 drove the price to $135.6 million. Three more bids on July 31 drove the price to $136.8 million.

Since then, at least two bids have been placed every weekday to keep the auction alive. But there have also been brief interruptions: six bids were placed on August 15, five on August 6, and four on August 5 and 23.

This is the second auction for the nearly empty complex. There were no bids at the first auction, where the buyer was required to preserve the distinctive yellow building. The heated reaction to the most recent auction – without that construction restriction – suggests the buyer will likely demolish the building.

The building was designed by the famous architect William Pereira, who died in 1985. He is known for unusual-looking buildings – from the spider-like building at the entrance to Los Angeles International Airport to the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.

Laguna Niguel’s Ziggurat was intended to be a factory and headquarters for the defense contractor Rockwell. Construction was completed in 1971, but the building remained empty and was sold to the federal government in 1974 for defense factories in Los Angeles.

Orange County Register reporter Erika Ritchie contributed to this report.

Jonathan Lansner is a business columnist for the Southern California News Group. Reach him at [email protected].