Alix Hobbs stepped into a new situation when she took the helm of the nonprofit Crystal Cove Alliance last month—and not just from her perspective.
She became the sole chief executive of an organization that includes cottage rentals and commercial leasing at one of Orange County’s best-known historic sites—lines of business that operate alongside work to ensure the preservation of the area and educate the public about the 2,400 acres of land and 3.1 miles of coastline it encompasses.
Hobbs oversees both aspects of the mission, and that’s new for the organization, too. Crystal Cove Alliance previously had separate CEOs for businesses operations and educational programs.
The cottages and restaurants on the land are part of a partnership between Crystal Cove Alliance partners and the California Department of Parks and Recreation. The goal is to maintain Crystal Cove State Park’s swath of the Newport Coast, work on marine life research in an area stretching from Corona del Mar to Laguna Beach, preservation and rental of the historic cottages and restaurant spaces, and maintenance the area’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
The new management structure improves communications within the organization, said founder and Vice President Laura Davick. The former setup sometimes meant marketing opportunities were missed. Visitors hiking through the park, for example, were often left unaware of the cottages available for rent or the variety of restaurants offered by the organization.
The new executive alignment was accompanied by term limits on the organization’s board of advisers, a change that was billed as an effort to prepare for the future. Each member can serve six consecutive one-year terms, and then must leave the board for at least one year. They can apply to return to the board, though reappointment is subject to a vote by the body.
The goal is to prompt a turnover of board members “to bring in fresh expertise and a new generation of leaders to the nonprofit,” Davick said.
Serendipity
Hobbs originally declined to interview for the position after receiving a call from a headhunter in April.
She had recently completed a turnaround project at Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit group that works to make the coastal waters and watersheds of the Los Angeles area safe and healthy.
Some of Hobbs’ achievements came while she “essentially” acted as chief financial officer of the organization, said Matthew King, Heal the Bay’s communications director, in an online statement to donors.
“She made sure the trains ran on time—managing budgets, overseeing operations, (and) shepherding grants,” he said, to settle the organization “during a turbulent time.”
Heal the Bay then asked Hobbs to create a 10-year strategic plan and lead a fundraising campaign for further stability, King said.
Hobbs said she “was enjoying the setup for the organization’s future” when the headhunter called.
She listened to the recruiter describe the alliance’s achievements before gently turning down the offer for an interview.
“It’s always good to hear about another nonprofit’s success,” she said.
Hobbs changed her mind about the job after she spent a weekend at Crystal Cove. She’d long planned to visit the area, but the headhunter’s phone call moved the trip to the top of her personal priorities.
“I had a magical day at the beach,” she said. “I fell in love with the cottages, the park’s open spaces, the dunes, the children’s educational programs and everything here.”
So she called the headhunter a few days later to ask if she could interview for the position after all.
The alliance contacted more than 2,000 people about the job in a national search. A committee received the names of 30 candidates, of whom Davick and the organization’s managers interviewed five.
“Only Alix stood out to our board, leaders, staff and partners,” she said.
‘Cottage Industry’
Many people know about the nonprofit’s “cottage industry.”
About 24,000 people a year book an overnight stay for as low as $60, seven months in advance, at one of the two dozen-plus Crystal Cove beach cottages, Davick said—all them date back to the 1920s and 1930s and have been restored with historical accuracy.
“People who stay in the cottages get to experience the California-beach lifestyle” from the early 20th century, Davick said.
Her parents met there in 1940, she said, and bought a multiyear lease for one of the cottages in 1960 for $2,000. She and her family stayed there on weekends and “every summer” for 40 years.
Former cottage owners’ children have talked about sleeping on the beach during warm summer nights because “no one had air conditioning” in the cottages, Davick said.
The park originally was part of the Irvine Ranch, which become Irvine Company.
Tent campers, laborers and other squatters occupied the cove in the early 1900s, Davick said. Irvine Co. in 1940 asked them to move or begin paying a land lease. Many people stayed and built cottages and a small business district.
The cove joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, owing largely to the efforts of residents to protect the cottages as a part of California’s culture, Davick said.
“The buildings were examples of early handcrafted architecture along California’s coast,” she said.
Irvine Co. sold Crystal Cove for $32.6 million a few months later to California State Parks.
The parks department ordered residents to vacate the cove after the sale, but many of them fought the order and won 20-year lease extensions, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The parks department intended to restore and maintain the buildings, but it lacked the funds, Davick said.
It signed a contract in 1997 to allow a real estate developer to build a $23 million resort inside the park, according to reports in the Los Angeles Times.
Developers planned to build 60 to 90 cottages that would rent for $100 to $400 per night, a 120-seat restaurant, three swimming pools and a 150-car parking lot along the Pacific Coast Highway.
The proposal would send about 5% of the resort’s revenue to the parks department.
Davick said she left a lucrative career in real estate development in Florida 17 years ago to fight the development on her childhood home. She created the organization, which originally was named the Alliance to Rescue Crystal Cove, in 1999 with the goal to retain Crystal Cove’s early 20th century character and allow the public to enjoy the area.
The residents, meanwhile, moved out of the cottages in 2001 when the lease extensions ended.
Davick, environmentalists and many OC residents eventually forced the state to withdraw the resort proposal in 2002.
The organization changed names and was the only bidder that applied to manage the cove in 2004.
It restored 22 of 46 cottages for about $22 million and began renting them in 2006.
Today the alliance has a staff of 36 and manages about 500 volunteers, most of whom are with the parks department.
Commercial leases for the The Beachcomber Cafe and Ruby’s Shake Shack on Pacific Coast Highway round out the group’s business operations.
Revenue from the cottage rentals and commercial leases supports the alliance’s various educational programs, restoration projects and environmental preservation work.
That’s a key for 1 million or so visitors who visit the cove each year to hike, mountain bike and horseback ride on the park’s 2,400 acres of wooden canyons, bluffs and trails.
Transition
The group faced a critical decision when Harry Helling resigned as chief executive of education programs in October to accept the executive director position at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Birch Aquarium-Museum at his alma mater, the University of California-San Diego.
Helling was named president of the alliance in 2008 and helped develop its K-12 marine science education programs.
He previously served as president of the Dana Point-based Ocean Institute, formerly called the Orange County Marine Institute.
He left the Crystal Cove Alliance in the middle of a project to restore the remaining cottages. The effort includes petitioning the California Coastal Commission for building permits and leading a capital campaign.
Most of the cottages—29—have been restored, but work has yet to begin on the remaining 17, Davick said.
She estimates that the alliance needs to raise about $26 million to stabilize the bluffs near the 17 cottages, build a retaining wall, lay utilities, and construct a public-access pathway to allow guests with disabilities to use the cottages.
The restoration project also requires workers to examine each cottage, record its appearance and facilities, obtain functional components and materials, and find period furnishings and any needed fixture replacements.
“Each cottage has its own story and character,” Davick said.
Davick estimates that after the work is done, the newly restored cottages could generate an additional $500,000 annually and make the nonprofit self-sustaining.
She said the remaining work could take as few as five years, depending on funds.
The state parks system is unlikely to provide money to support the project, Davick said, so the alliance must raise all funds on its own, and the board turned to her for guidance on that effort after Helling left.
Davick said the managers decided to forgo hiring an interim chief executive during the national search for a new leader.
She took the title of interim chief executive on a volunteer basis, sharing duties with Partnership Development Director Kate Wheeler and Education Director Sara Ludovise.
The decision saved money and led board members, executives and staffers to examine operations for potential areas of improvement.
The trio worked on the budget, accounting issues, business and nonprofit operations, capital raising efforts and education programs, and coordinated with the board to restructure the organization.
The restructuring that brought Hobbs aboard was made complete by Dan Gee, who stepped back as chief executive of business operations, taking the title of president and reporting to the new chief executive.
Gee started as a board member 13 years ago and has led the business subsidiary for the past 10 years.
Next Steps
Davick said she’s confident with the organization in Hobbs’ hands.
“I feel at peace with finding Alix,” she said. “I’m fortunate to find and work with someone who’s passionate about Crystal Cove Alliance, its work and its future.”
Hobbs said she’ll benefit from having Davick and the other members of the “office of the president” remain on staff.
“It’s a very well-run organization,” she said. “Everyone is very knowledgeable about managing daily operations, fundraising and running capital campaigns.”
She said she wants to increase children’s access to Crystal Cove, expand the organization’s education program, and find a way to spread the public-private nonprofit partnership model across the country.
The organization’s educational program allows children, researchers and college students to learn about marine animals in an outdoor laboratory. Children participate in research studies that monitor marine migration patterns and populations over time, helping collect data that researchers analyze to determine the growth or decline of various animals and plants.
Hobbs said the Crystal Cove model “is something that should be replicated” to protect the environment and all national parks.
