Burnham USA is the latest developer looking to help revamp the Lido Village area of Newport Beach.
The Newport Beach-based commercial real estate developer last week closed on the purchase of 3366 Via Lido, a roughly 16,000-square-foot waterfront office near the city’s former city hall.
The two-story property, built in 1970, also includes a ground lease for a 17-slip yacht marina. The now-multitenant building was originally built for Newport Balboa Savings, which was said to be the only bank in the country with yacht-in banking services, according to the buyers.
Burnham USA also acquired a vacant site about a block away on 32nd Street as part of the deal, which totaled about $16.6 million.
Olen Properties of Newport Beach sold both properties.
“Waterfront commercial property of this size and caliber in Newport Beach is very unusual” in terms of availability for purchase, Scott Burnham, Burnham USA’s chief executive, said in a statement.
He cited his relationship with Igor Olenicoff, Olen’s president and Orange County’s second wealthiest resident, as being instrumental in making the deal.
“Igor and I go way back in time to the beginning of my real estate career in Southern California.”
It’s the only major property in Orange County that Olen is known to have sold over the past decade.
“The price was quite compelling for us,” with the office trading hands for more than $1,000 per square foot, Olenicoff said.
The acquisition of the office and nearby vacant site, which is being used as a parking lot, “provides us with a unique opportunity to do something very special and creative,” Burnham said.
Olen Properties previously considered redeveloping the Via Lido office into a midrise residential project that would have featured luxury homes, and it eyed turning the vacant parcel on 32nd Street into a six-unit townhome project. It didn’t pursue either development.
“We have thought of doing (a redevelopment) for years; however, it is just not something we can do at this time,” Olenicoff said.
Olen used money from the sale to buy a large apartment complex, he said.
Burnham said he’s considering “all options” in terms of redevelopment of the two Newport Beach properties, including restoration of the Via Lido building with continued office uses, or a combination of residential and commercial development.
DJM
The acquisitions are in an area already getting its share of notable redevelopment projects.
DJM Capital Partners is upgrading Lido Marina Village, a roughly 125,000-square-foot waterfront project that the San Jose-based retail developer bought in 2012.
DJM signed acclaimed sushi bar Nobu as an anchor tenant for the 17-acre center. The restaurant is scheduled to open next summer.
Also close to Burnham’s new property: the Lido House Hotel, a 130-room boutique hotel that will go up on the site of Newport Beach’s former city hall.
Newport Beach-based R.D. Olson Development is heading up that project, which is in the planning stages.
“The greater Lido Village area in general is going through complete transformation at this time, and we are excited to be part of it,” Burnham said.
Burnham USA and its affiliates are believed to be the largest owner of commercial properties along the coast of Newport Beach outside of the Irvine Company.
Affiliate Burnham-Ward Properties already has a notable redevelopment project under way in Newport Beach: Castaway Commons, a 32,000-square-foot property on Westcliff Drive near the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa city line.
The property, home to several well-known medical tenants, is being turned into a mixed-use project with unique retail spaces and health-food restaurant Café Gratitude.
Burnham-Ward Properties was also the team that developed SOCO, the retail center that features a mix of hip furniture, fashion, design and food tenants along the San Diego (405) Freeway in Costa Mesa.
SOCO, which also goes by the name of South Coast Collection, got a new ownership structure last month when L.A.-based real estate investor Rockwood Capital LLC paid $120 million for a majority stake in the center.
Burnham-Ward, which kept an undisclosed stake in SOCO and will continue to manage the property, bought the center in 2009 for about $35 million.
