Newport Beach : Coastal Panel Approves Balboa Building Project

A portion of the Balboa Peninsula along Main Street will soon get a face lift as the result of unanimous Coastal Commission approval last week of a $12-million renovation project.

Meeting in San Diego, the 12-member panel endorsed the project, which will require the demolition of existing duplexes and commercial buildings to make way for a retail-restaurant complex slated for construction across from the Fun Zone, which is also undergoing restoration.

Mark Howard, owner of Howard Properties, one of two companies involved in the development, said Thursday that final financing arrangements and the filing of legal documents will begin immediately and construction can get under way by the end of September.

In addition to a restaurant and retail shops, the development will include a four-story, 237-space parking garage and public observation deck.

The commission also approved a second renovation project, slated for an old shopping center at the corner of Balboa Boulevard and Coast Highway, near the Newport Beach-Huntington Beach city limits.

The $1.5-million project will combine demolition of a gas station and car wash with substantial remodeling of existing commercial buildings, according to Bill Ficker, a architect retained by the developer, Newport Beach-based Triangle Associates.

The shopping center, he said, “is typical of old shopping centers built in the 1940s and 1950s and is falling into disrepair.”

Ficker said the renovation would begin within two weeks and would take 150 days to complete. The remodeled center would include a fast-food restaurant, convenience market, dry cleaner and other small businesses.

“We are in the process of getting out building permits and we already have all other city approvals, so we should get started within the next two weeks, maybe sooner,” he said.