A local developer is seeking to tear down a two-level office building in Newport Center and replace it with an eight-floor residential tower with 76 apartment units – with some of the apartments designated as affordable housing.
The developer and property owner, Junkins 12 Corporate Plaza LLC, is proposing to build the apartment tower near Newport Beach City Hall, according to the developer’s city application. The eight-floor tower would replace an 18,850-square-foot office building at 12 Corporate Plaza Drive, which has tenants such as Douglas Elliman and RealSource Group, according to CoStar.
Newport Beach-based Junkins 12 Corporate Plaza would demolish the office building and replace it with an eight-floor tower with two levels of subterranean parking and spaces for 190 vehicles. The 76 apartment units would take up 118,550 square feet.
Six of the proposed units would be designated as low-income households while another six units would be classified as moderate-income households.
The developer is applying for a height concession. Junkins 12 Corporate Plaza wants to build an 85-foot tower, significantly taller than the city’s 32-foot-height limit for the property.
The apartment development, once completed, would offer four studios, 15 one-bedrooms, 42 two-bedrooms and 15 three-bedrooms.
Some of the on-site amenities include a club room, fitness center and sky lounge.
12 Corporate Plaza Lane was built in 1975 and renovated in 2011. Mitch and Lori Junkins purchased the building in February 1996 for $2 million, according to CoStar data; last year the property was sold to a related entity.
Irvine-based MVE Architects submitted renderings of the proposed project as part of Junkins 12 Corporate Plaza application.
Elements of the proposed development could be changed as Junkins 12 Corporate Plaza must go through the city’s planning process for approvals.
Newport Beach’s Housing Pipeline
Replacing 12 Corporate Plaza Drive with affordable housing is one of the many residential proposals for the area around Newport Center’s development pipeline.
Park Newport LP wants to add 366 apartment units to a multifamily property it owns in the shadows of Fashion Island.
Irvine Company recently proposed a combined 800 apartment units at Villas of Fashion Island – located at 1000 San Joaquin Plaza – and Newport Center’s Block 100 – a planned four-building multifamily development at 11 Newport Center Drive.
Irvine Co. also plans to convert a portion of an office campus at MacArthur Court in Newport Beach into a residential development with 700 units. MacArthur Court is located near John Wayne Airport.
The city’s housing pipeline is part of Newport Beach’s plan to rezone five areas with new units. The airport area, for example, could see 2,577 new housing units. The other four regions are Newport Center, slated for 2,439 new housing units; Coyote Canyon with up to 1,530 units: West Newport Mesa calling for as many as 1,107 units; and, the Dover/Westcliff area, where 521 units could be added.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has set a goal to build 2.5 million new housing units by 2030, saying it will reduce home prices and create more choices.
The state’s legislature has imposed a series of laws dictating how many units each city must build. Cities that don’t meet the mandates can be fined, lose the power to control their own zoning or be sent into a court receivership and have decisions made for them.
The mandate, known as the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, requires all California cities to allocate several residential units within their respective general plans.
