By PAUL HUGHES
Tim DeCinces sees the pitch a mile off.
It’s the one they always throw at him. How could it not, being a DeCinces, an ex-ballplayer and now developing Orange County real estate?
“I don’t know what it would be like if it were different,” DeCinces said of his famous name. “I try to make it a non-factor, ignore it. We do our own thing. It is what it is.”
DeCinces, son of longtime California Angels player Doug DeCinces, builds custom homes in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. He’s built 25 since starting Home Plate Development LLC five years ago.
He has 12 going up now, while readying his biggest deal yet on 2 acres in Costa Mesa.
The project, a smaller version of the urban lofts going up everywhere, is estimated at $30 to $40 million in costs “when all is said and done,” DeCinces said.
He said he hopes to submit early plans to Costa Mesa this spring. Construction could start in 2008.
Plans call for 150,000 square feet of lofts, shops and office space.
“We’re trying to create a small village,” DeCinces said.
He acknowledges the condominium market downturn but isn’t put off.
“There’s a bit of an attrition rate (in condos) right now,” he said. “But these are more urban and edgy. People want to live in this area, and there’s only so much land.”
Costa Mesa officials have met a couple times with DeCinces’ team and know Home Plate from prior homebuilding, said Mike Robinson, a city assistant development services director.
“They’re designing projects that fit in with the community,” he said. “Some are more willing to do that, and he’s more willing.”
DeCinces’ side gig: restaurants. He developed The Beach Pit in Costa Mesa. It’s traditional Southern barbecue. DeCinces got his first taste of the grub playing minor league ball in Mobile, Ala.
A converted house, The Beach Pit,complete with corrugated metal roof,looks like a place Jeff Foxworthy might eat at, or even live in.
“Real Southern barbecue is off the beaten path,” DeCinces said. “It’s grandma’s house turned into a barbecue pit.”
The restaurant opened in 2005 and is 1,400 square feet, including outdoor patios. The first year, it did $1.4 million, according to DeCinces.
So he started looking for a second spot.
He found it in Tustin’s renovation of Old Town. Family friend Leason Pomeroy told DeCinces about the old Tustin Garage,the kind of place rich in character and ripe for a dose of old-time gospel barbecue.
“It looks like a barn,” DeCinces said. “You peel the outer layer a bit, and it looks like it’s in Kansas or something.”
DeCinces came to the city “with a concept he’s made successful,” said Tustin Councilman Doug Davert, who was mayor when DeCinces began talking with the city.
“He’s willing to spend the money to make it work, restoring a historical building and turning it into a fun restaurant,” Davert said.
DeCinces hopes to open in Tustin this summer. He continues to look for other sites.
The food is substantial and solid, like a lot of Southern cooking. Everything’s fresh.
On the simple menu, prices run $9 for a lunch special with a sandwich, fries and a Coke, to $22 for a prime rib dinner. DeCinces’ wife Melissa runs the day-to-day with general manager Brad Craig.
DeCinces’ dad isn’t part of The Beach Pit,except as a patron.
“The restaurant is a great example of Tim’s talent,” Doug DeCinces said. “He envisioned it, said it would be great at the beach and never gave up.”
“Beach Pit is the first new thing my dad had nothing to do with,” Tim DeCinces said.
In other ways, the paths of dad and son are similar.
Both played ball in the Baltimore Orioles system. Both are known in OC. Both worked with their dads, who developed real estate.
Doug DeCinces’ father was a general contractor in the San Fernando Valley for six decades. Doug DeCinces worked for him during his playing days with the Orioles and Angels, later starting his own company, DeCinces Properties Inc. in Irvine.
The company developed Irvine’s Strawberry Farms Golf Club.
When Tim DeCinces was playing baseball, he started working with his father in the off-season.
“One of the toughest things in that situation is having the freedom to become your own person,” he said.
Dad turned over a project to his son’s supervision, according to Doug DeCinces.
“We did a housing project together. I said, ‘I believe in you, I’m here to help. But the one way to learn this business is to be out there every day. Here’s the project. Go for it.'”
Home Plate Development began that year.
Most of Tim DeCinces’ work is building homes here and there in already developed areas. The homes typically are 2,200 square feet to 2,800 square feet and sell for $800,000 to $1.2 million.
Drafted by the Orioles in the 17th round out of the University of California, Los Angeles, Tim DeCinces came close but never made it to the big leagues.
He led the Pac-10 in homeruns in 1996, playing catcher. He spent five seasons playing ball in the South, never rising above Triple-A. His last year was 2002.
“Real estate is a competitive environment, and you’re working with lots of different kinds of people,” which is just like baseball, Tim DeCinces said. “You meet a lot of people playing sports. A lot of your success is about relationships.”
Tim DeCinces said he works with MKA Capital Group Advisors LLC of Newport Beach,run by Jason Sugarman, who played baseball at Stanford while DeCinces was at UCLA,on mezzanine debt.
Tim DeCinces is signing with dad’s other team,the Angels,in a manner of speaking.
This season, The Beach Pit is set to provide sandwiches and ribs, smoked on-site, at the Budweiser Patio at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
It won’t make a lot of money, but it will put the name in front of thousands, Tim DeCinces said.
