A prominent medical office building on one of the more eclectic streets in Newport Beach is about to get a big makeover.
Burnham-Ward Properties, a Newport Beach-based commercial real estate investment and development firm, is scheduled to kick off redevelopment this week of 1617 Westcliff Drive, a two-story building it owns near the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa city line.
The project aims to turn the 32,000-square-foot property, a 1960s-era building currently home to several well-known medical tenants, into a mixed-use project with unique retail spaces and a trendy new restaurant.
Design features echoing some of the creative-office projects being built elsewhere in Orange County are planned for the redevelopment, which Burnham-Ward said will cost a few million dollars and be completed this summer.
Culver City-based Shubin + Donaldson Architects designed the plans for the project, which will feature a ground-level clad in wood and a second floor framed by steel and glass, along with other interior and landscaping elements.
Burnham-Ward, an affiliate of Burnham USA Equities Inc., the developer behind the cutting-edge South Coast Collection design and culinary center in Costa Mesa, is renaming the Newport Beach property Castaway Commons.
The developers bought the property out of bankruptcy a little more than a year ago for a reported $9.4 million and have worked with the city to get approvals for the project.
Their goal for the redevelopment is to bring “new, unique and sought-after offerings to a premier market,” said Bryon Ward, a partner at Burnham-Ward.
Tenants in the culinary, wellness and retail sectors are expected to occupy a bulk of the building’s first floor. Medical uses will take up much of the second floor.
Terry Dubrow, a cosmetic surgeon and husband of “Real Housewives of Orange County” cast member Heather Dubrow, is a tenant there, along with Dr. Kristen Forman, one of the region’s best-known dermatologists.
Both doctors will expand their practices into larger, state-of-the-art facilities in the building as part of the redevelopment, according to Ward.
Also signed up for the property: a new restaurant to replace the space once held by steakhouse The Arches.
Ward declined to name the restaurant but said it’s a “unique concept from Los Angeles.”
The building’s close to being fully leased, he said.
The redevelopment is expected to provide a new look to Westcliff Drive and 17th Street, a main Costa Mesa thoroughfare into Newport Beach, and to neighborhoods in the Back Bay area.
A number of the older stores fronting those streets don’t necessarily reflect the surrounding tony neighborhoods with their hodgepodge of tenants and property owners.
Buildings along the thoroughfare seldom come up for sale, limiting redevelopment opportunities, Ward said.
Burnham USA and its affiliates have accumulated several other retail and office properties over the years within a few blocks of the site, primarily along 17th Street, which becomes Westcliff Drive in Newport Beach.
Scott Burnham, Burnham USA’s chief executive and a partner in Burnham-Ward Properties, describes the street as the main shopping district for Newport Beach residents, outside of Fashion Island.
Castaway Commons is the second big Burnham project announced in the past month. In February, the developer bought nearly 30 acres next to Long Beach Airport, where it is planning a retail village of about 250,000 square feet.
The project, tentatively named The Village at Douglas Park, is expected to be one of the largest retail developments in Long Beach in years and will feature at least one hotel, in addition to shopping, entertainment and eateries.
