NEWPORT BEACH — The Newport Beach Car Wash, which served local residents for more than half a century, has closed for good.
The Irvine Company has purchased the 51-year-old car wash property near Fashion Island, acquiring a two-building 1.26-acre parcel at 150 Newport Center Drive West that sits adjacent to one of the mega developer’s planned apartment projects in Newport Center.
The terms of the deal were not made public. According to CoStar records, the car wash property last sold for $11.8 million in 2014.
Changes in Newport Center
The sale comes as Newport Beach undergoes a major transformation to meet state housing requirements.
In recent years, the city has approved several projects that call for razing older commercial buildings around John Wayne Airport and Newport Center and turning them into new mixed-use and residential communities.
Tod Ridgeway, managing partner of the Newport Beach Car Wash and a former mayor of Newport Beach, told the Business Journal that he foresaw the shift to mixed-use more than two decades ago.
“When there was a general plan amendment in 2006, I championed mixed-use in Fashion Island,” he said. “I did not have the unanimous support of the council at that point in time, but I was always a believer in mixed-use.”
Ridgeway and his partners pivoted their prior plan to turn the car wash lot into a 28-unit residential condo project.
“We decided that we were not going to construct it,” said Ridgeway.
He said that when the project was first approved, building heights were limited to 55 feet.
Since then, Newport Center has undergone several planning and zoning changes that allow taller buildings and larger projects. Last year, the city’s planning commission raised the height limit to 85 feet.
“We were going to have to start all over to re-entitle our site,” Ridgeway said. “There was so much activity going on and there was value created with the new height.”
Instead of starting another long entitlement process, the owners asked the Irvine Company if it would buy the property.
“Based upon time and place more than anything, we were in a position where it was beneficial for our business plan to go ahead and sell it,” Ridgeway said.
Irvine Company’s Plans
The Irvine Co.’s purchase fits into its larger plans for Newport Center.
The property sits next to the company’s proposed Block 100 development, which will convert the 142,000-square-foot Gateway Plaza office campus at 110 Newport Center Drive in Newport Center into 600 apartment units. The plan is to seamlessly integrate the car wash site into the bigger development project.
The company is already constructing another 184-unit apartment complex in its Villas of Fashion Island community, which is also a couple of blocks away.
Closing the Car Wash
The Newport Beach Car Wash officially closed last month, and the site is now fenced off.
Ridgeway said it was hard to end a business that had been in Newport Beach for just over 50 years.
“It was sad to let it go,” he said.
He also understands that longtime customers might feel the same way.
“The business of car washes has changed,” Ridgeway said, noting that labor-intensive, full-service operations have largely given way to automated facilities. “You just can’t do that anymore.”
Now that the sale is done, the partnership will share the proceeds with its investors and look for new opportunities.
“I’m happy to certainly move on,” he said.
