Apartment and business complex that would replace Newport shopping center heads to Planning Commission
A mixed-use development containing 384 apartments and 5,677 square feet of business space that’s proposed to replace Newport Beach’s MacArthur Square shopping center near John Wayne Airport will be considered by the city Planning Commission on Thursday.
Irvine-based Newport Place Residential LLC is proposing The Residences at Newport Place, which would consist of four four-story buildings with retail or restaurant uses on the first floor and residences above, according to a city staff report.
The development is planned for the corner of Dove Street and Scott Drive, just west of MacArthur Boulevard. The area is surrounded by office buildings, commercial centers, restaurants, a car wash and the Radisson Hotel.
The project’s housing would consist of 54 studio units averaging about 616 square feet, 173 one-bedroom units averaging 804 square feet, 136 two-bedroom units averaging about 1,178 square feet and 21 three-bedroom units averaging 1,422 square feet.
Of the 384 units, 86 would be priced below market rates for lower-income residents but would have the same amenities as market-rate units, according to the proposal.
Rent prices have not been announced.
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The Residences at Newport Place would include a swimming pool, two spas, private cabanas, a community clubhouse, a business center, a recreation and fitness center, courtyards, two children’s play areas, barbecue areas and a rooftop gathering space called a “sky deck.”
A street-level parking area and two subterranean parking levels would total 715 spaces.
City land-use policies require that the project dedicate a half-acre as a public park, but Newport Place Residential has asked that the requirement be waived so it can maintain the project’s requested density, according to a city staff report.
The company instead has proposed a 59-foot-wide, half-acre linear open space along the southern part of the property that would be gated but available to the public during daytime. The area would have a pedestrian walkway between Dove Street and Martingale Way.
City staff has recommended that the Planning Commission adopt the waiver.
Newport Place Residential is proposing to raze the 5.7-acre MacArthur Square center, built in 1974. It includes retail stores, professional and medical offices, a dance studio and several restaurants, including Arnie’s Manhattan Deli, which has been there for more than a decade.
A project description for The Residences at Newport Place prepared in 2014 by KHR Associates, a consultant for Newport Place Residential, called MacArthur Square “aging, underutilized and underperforming.”
“The shopping center’s economic survival relies primarily on the weekday influx of workers to the area, as there are no residential developments within a mile of the site,” the report stated.
Dozens of residents, along with people who work in the area, wrote letters to planning commissioners urging them to preserve the shopping center. Several writers pointed to the need for restaurants and retail in the area.
“I would be greatly opposed to reclassifying for affordable housing,” wrote Richard McCloskey, who works near the site. “We need commerce and trade in this area as opposed to more traffic and noise. The additional traffic over the last 10 years, mostly caused by a flood of apartments and condos within a radius of a couple miles, is nearly crippling.”
The Planning Commission meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Newport Beach Civic Center, 100 Civic Center Drive.
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Hannah Fry, hannah.fry@latimes.com
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
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