Related California appears to face an uphill battle to build Orange County’s tallest residential tower in Newport Center.
The city of Newport Beach last week held its first public hearing on the developer’s plan to turn the 2-acre site that currently holds the Orange County Museum of Art into a 26-story luxury condominium tower.
The project is dubbed Museum House and is slated to rise 295 feet—a height that would edge out Essex Skyline at MacArthur Place in Santa Ana, a pair of 25-story condo towers near the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, as OC’s tallest housing project.
Initial details of the project call for 100 condo units ranging from 1,750 square feet to 4,950 square feet. Pricing for the units hasn’t been disclosed.
The project would total about 504,569 square feet, factoring in two levels of underground parking.
Demolition of the 23,000-square-foot building that houses the museum could begin in about two years, assuming the project gets the necessary approvals, according to city documents. Construction on the building would then run until mid-2020.
Related California’s plans come about a year and a half after the developer, a unit of New York-based Related Companies LP that has an Irvine office, began negotiating with the museum to sell the site, at 850 San Clemente Drive.
Terms of the proposed land sale have not been disclosed. Other land eyed for residential development around Fashion Island has sold for as much as $10 million an acre.
OCMA would use the sale’s proceeds to build a new gallery on land it owns next to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.
Related California’s “vision for this site will blend nicely into Fashion Island and is the best use of this property,” OCMA director and chief executive Todd Smith said in statement.
Greenlight Impact
The development faces several hurdles before it can move ahead; local slow-growth groups have already voiced objections to the plan.
The tower’s height also could come under the scrutiny of the Federal Aviation Administration, due to its proximity to flight paths from John Wayne Airport.
In addition, a variety of area businesses and property owners are likely to object to some, or all, aspects of the project.
Newport Beach’s Irvine Company, the dominant property owner in the project’s immediate area, hasn’t commented on Related California’s plans.
Sources familiar with Irvine Co.’s operations said it is likely to oppose the project, primarily because the condo tower will block the views of the landlord’s high-end office buildings in Newport Center.
The condo tower’s proximity to Irvine Co.’s Villas Fashion Island, an upscale, 524-unit apartment project going up on the site of the former San Joaquin Plaza office property, also could cause concern to the developer, sources tell the Business Journal.
That mid-rise rental project, whose southern edge borders the museum site, is scheduled to open late this year.
The biggest hurdle to the condo tower, other area developers and real estate sources familiar with the plan say, could ultimately end up being a car wash site on the opposite site of Fashion Island.
Newport Anacapa Associates LLC, owner of the Newport Beach Car Wash since early 2014, last year proposed razing the commercial buildings on the 1.3-acre site and building 49 luxury condos in their place.
That six-story project, called Newport Center Villas, wouldn’t fall under Newport Beach’s Greenlight measure, a slow-growth initiative that forces a public vote if new development within a specific area of the city—such as Newport Center—tops 100 dwelling units, among other considerations.
Related California’s plan also wouldn’t fall under the Greenlight initiative if there were no other residential projects in Newport Center that needed to garner city approvals.
But if Newport Anacapa’s 49-unit housing plan were to first get the city’s approval, then Related California’s 100-unit project, as currently envisioned, would come under the Greenlight measure and would require a public vote.
Another option, if that scenario occurred, would be for Related California to cut down its tower proposal, in order to keep under the Greenlight requirements for a public vote, city officials said.
If the city’s general plan amendment for the Newport Center Villas project is approved first and at the requested number of 49 units, then there would be 60 units available for the OC Museum site without requiring a vote, said Kim Brandt, Newport Beach’s community development director.
The Newport Center Villas project is further along in the city’s planning process and would appear to have the inside track on getting approvals, according to real estate sources. That project’s ownership group also includes a pair of former city officials, Tod Ridgeway and Dennis O’Neil, as well as a former Irvine Co. executive, Mike Lutton.
Ridgeway, a local developer, served as Newport Beach’s mayor in 2001 and 2002, and O’Neil, a land use attorney, served as mayor in 1999.
Meridian Experience
Related California’s development team isn’t a stranger to the complexities involved in getting residential projects moving ahead in Newport Beach, or other cities where development can be a challenge.
William Witte, Related California’s chairman and chief executive, also serves on the board of New Home Co., the Aliso Viejo-based developer of the nearby Meridian condo project along Santa Barbara Drive.
That 79-home project, located on a 4.3-acre site overlooking the Newport Beach Country Club, opened in late 2014, and was the first for-sale housing project to go up in the area surrounding the Fashion Island shopping center in more than 20 years.
The project recently sold out, with some condo units trading hands for close to $4 million.
Witte consulted with New Home Co. on some of the aspects of the proposed condo tower, according to Larry Webb, chief executive of the builder.
Related California’s Urban Housing division also has high-rise projects in development in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose, according to the company’s website.
