The biggest property owners in the Mariner’s Mile area of Newport Beach have proposed the largest development the high-traffic area’s had in years, a mixed-use project featuring retail, offices, restaurants and apartments.
Newport Beach-based MX3 Ventures and MSM Global Ventures filed plans with the city this month for Newport Village, an ambitious multiblock development that would be built on both sides of Coast Highway and total nearly 600,000 square feet.
The real estate firms are controlled by different members of the Moshayedi family, longtime locals who founded and ran Santa Ana-based computer storage device maker STEC Inc. until its 2013 sale to Western Digital Corp. for $340 million.
Manouch Moshayedi, STEC co-founder and one-time chairman, runs MX3, while Mark Moshayedi—Manouch’s brother and a STEC co-founder—heads MSM.
Other family investors in the area include Mike Moshayedi, another brother with prior ties to STEC.
The family is among the largest privately held owners of commercial real estate in Orange County.
Under their various entities, they’ve paid top dollar in recent years to assemble a multiblock stretch of properties flanking Mariner’s Mile, the roughly 1.4-mile stretch of Coast Highway that’s home to an eclectic mix of restaurants, shops, offices and maritime-related businesses.
The family has spent more than $130 million since 2009 to buy properties in Mariner’s Mile, according to Business Journal records.
“The area is a good long-term investment,” Manouch Moshayedi told the Business Journal last year. “These are one-of-a-kind properties.”
Sites under the family’s control on the waterfront side of the highway include the former Ardell Yacht & Ship Brokers building, the nearby Duffy Electric Boat Co. rental store, and the Mariners Mile Marine Center office property.
On the inland side, they own a roughly five-acre stretch that’s home to the Sun Country Marine and Johnston Yacht Sales properties, and an adjoining office property.
All of the sites are part of the proposed redevelopment plan, which calls for a little more than 240,000 square feet of retail, office, and food service construction, and a multifamily project totaling 175 units and 356,000 square feet.
A new public boardwalk is also envisioned, as is a new marina with 77 boat slips, and additional slips for the Duffy boat site, according to city filings. The project would also include 694 underground parking spaces. The above-ground portion would top out at 35 feet.
Newport Village likely faces a long road toward necessary approvals. A full environmental impact report is likely needed, as is a sign-off by the California Coastal Commission, among other reviews.
The project apparently doesn’t need a public vote under the city’s green-light initiative, as it complies with Newport Beach’s general plan, according to Community Development Director Seimone Jurjis.
The early-stage Newport Village plans come as the city looks at revitalizing Mariner’s Mile to make it more visitor-friendly and improve traffic flows, among other issues.
A series of workshops and planning commission hearings on the revitalization plan have been held over the past two years, but a specific time frame for a new master plan hasn’t been finalized.
Jurjis said it would make sense for a new master plan to be taken up at the same time as the Newport Village plan is processed, but that neither proposal would be rushed through.
“It’s going to be a while,” he said.
Other area projects have faced approval challenges. Last year the city’s planning commission rejected a 38,000-square-foot Porsche dealership on Coast Highway after residential neighbors expressed concern.
