Plans for a Newport Beach condominium project long in the works near Fashion Island have been scaled down, according to new proposals submitted to the city.
Newport Anacapa Associates LLC recently submitted plans for a 28-unit luxury condominium project on a 1.3-acre site it has owned since 2014.
The 150 Newport Center Drive site, which currently holds the Newport Beach Car Wash, is on the southern end of Newport Center Drive at Anacapa Drive, next to Newport Beach-based Irvine Co.’s Gateway Plaza office complex.
The new redevelopment plans are downsized from the company’s initial proposals submitted in 2015; those plans called for a six-story condo building totaling 49 units with multiple floors of underground parking.
New Plans
New plans call for a four-story structure, including 28 units and common space areas over a two-level underground parking garage.
The car wash would be demolished to make way for the project, which would have a height of 53 feet with “additional height for rooftop appurtenances,” according to the proposal. Initial plans called for a rooftop pool among other amenities.
The revised condo project is the third proposed development for the site since Newport Anacapa Associates paid a reported $12.5 million for it when it operated as the Beacon Bay Car Wash.
The sale worked out to roughly $9.6 million an acre; at the time of the sale, it is among the highest reported per-acre prices for developable land in the county in the past decade.
The owners initially considered a 125-room, high-end suite hotel at the site. Those plans were nixed amid resident pushback over changes to the land-use portion of the city’s general plan.
Backers
Former city officials Tod Ridgeway and Dennis O’Neil backed the ownership group in the initial development plans.
Other partners previously disclosed as being in the site’s initial ownership group included Mike Lutton and Ron Soderling.
Lutton, a longtime area real estate executive and developer, died in 2018.
Lutton held a number of notable positions in his career, including running the office and industrial portfolios for the Irvine Co.