Location, Location, Location: Newport Beach
05/01/2005
Curled around a large harbor filled with yachts and dotted with small residential islands, Newport Beach, Calif., is a casually elegant community where residents watch the surf and stock market reports with equal interest. And while Newporters share a somewhat laid-back ethos, their neighborhoods are remarkably diverse. “Newport is really a group of villages,” says Zackary Wright of Sotheby’s International Realty. “People say they live in Corona del Mar or Newport Coast or Peninsula Point, even though they are all in Newport Beach.”; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Above: 21 Island Vista, a five-bedroom
Pelican Crest estate on the market for
$7.295 million, offers
280-degree views of the harbor and ocean. (Click image to enlarge)
For locals, however, the distinction is significant. Residents of blufftop Corona del Mar are enamored of their narrow tree-lined streets of idyllic cottages. Nearly a century old, Corona del Mar has succeeded in retaining its villagelike feel. To the south, in Newport Coast, the draw is the newer mansions that offer extraordinary hilltop views of Catalina and the ocean. Peninsula Point, meanwhile, offers traditional beach houses nestled on a long, narrow stretch of land—the most desirable of which occupy three or four bayfront and oceanfront lots.
Newport Beach has long enjoyed the cachet of posh Cape Cod towns, but went further upmarket in the 1970s and 1980s when corporate executives started moving their headquarters to Newport Center—an upscale office park encircling the open-air Fashion Island mall—and building homes in the gated Big Canyon, Belcourt and Harbor Ridge communities. The grander Newport Coast, where development started 15 years ago and continues today, surpassed those areas as the neighborhood of choice in the 1990s, when the concept of formal Mediterranean villas became de rigueur. And now, despite being located in neighboring Irvine, Shady Canyon has captured the full attention of well-heeled Newporters. “I’ve heard many say that the Irvine address is a drawback, but that’s certainly not reflected in Shady Canyon sales,” Wright says. “People are buying—and they’re buying very expensive homes.” Only 400 homesites of up to one acre occupy Shady Canyon’s 1,070 acres. New residents, including slugger Mark McGwire, are forgiving the lack of ocean views for the area’s remarkably rural feel, central location and new golf course.“We’re seeing a huge demand for relaxed Tuscan-style homes in Shady Canyon—it’s the hottest segment of the market right now,” says realtor John McMonigle of Strada Properties, who notes that his Newport-area sales have topped $500 million since 2000. “It’s eight minutes from Fashion Island but is very rustic in nature and feels like it’s two hours away.”
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The Sea
Greens estate was designed by Fari
International and is
currently on the market
for $11.95
million. (Click image to enlarge)Old Newport Beach has not lost its luster, however. Harbor Island is one of Newport’s most coveted addresses, with only a handful of houses—all nestled on oversize waterfront lots. Homes rarely change hands, but when they do, Wright claims, they set sales records. “A few years ago you could have had the nicest home for $15 million, but today it would be much more,” he says, also noting that Newport Coast might soon take the prize for priciest sales, even though most homes have yet to be resold. Real estate on nearby Bay Island is not likely to bring the same prices as Harbor Island, but it is more remote. Connected to the mainland only by a gated pedestrian bridge (motor vehicles are prohibited on the island), the island’s vintage beach houses are regarded as family legacies and rarely come on the market. “Most people are unaware that they even exist,” Wright says. “It’s a great example of what Newport Beach was, and how it still is in some places.”
According to McMonigle, whether buyers are considering a clean-lined oceanfront house or a 15,000-square-foot villa with views—the two categories that are most in demand—they should expect to spend $10 million to $14 million. “On the waterfront, you’re buying frontage,” Wright says. “In Newport Coast or Shady Canyon, you’re buying square footage.”In the southernmost reaches of Newport Coast near Laguna Beach, Crystal Cove is offering 131 custom homesites, some measuring nearly one acre; prices range up to $5 million. In addition to offering ocean views, the development is next to 3,674 acres of permanently protected land. Along with earlier developments at Pelican Hill and Pelican Crest, Crystal Cove will continue to expand the demographics of Newport Beach. “With all of the publicity surrounding Newport Coast, we have many new international buyers,” Wright says. “People who don’t know Harbor Island know Pelican Crest. There is, for instance, a healthy mix [of buyers] coming from Europe and Asia.”
For those with more urban tastes, McMonigle has developed the loft-style Monarch Building in a mixed-use area near the top of the peninsula. Architect Chris Light has created a multilevel living and working space with 14-foot ceilings in the living areas. The two units not yet sold are listed at $799,000 and $1.895 million. “I think there’s a good demand for the product,” McMonigle says. “It’s close to the bay, the beach, Lido Village and restaurants.” It is a novel concept for Newport Beach real estate, which of course makes it just right.
facts & stats
• Setting Sail: With the largest harbor for small yachts in the world,
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Newport plays host to plenty of
yacht clubs: Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club,
949.644.9530, www.bcyc.org; Balboa Yacht
Club,
949.673.3515, www.balboayachtclub.com; Lido Isle
Yacht Club,
949.673.5119, www.lidoisleyachtclub.org; and
Newport Harbor
Yacht Club, 949.673.7730, www.nhyc.org. Not ready to buy your own sailboat?
Lease one from the Windward Sailing Club, 949.675.9060, www.windwardsailingclub.com, or cruise
the
harbor in an electric boat from Duffy Boats, 800.645.1044, www.duffyboats.com. For
almost 100 years,
the Newport Harbor Christmas Boat Parade has
celebrated the season with gaily
decorated watercraft—from yachts to
skiffs and canoes—that cruise a 14-mile
route on five mid-December
evenings. (Click image to enlarge)• Not Quite The OC: While the Fox television show has raised the profile of Newport Beach and Orange County, producers filmed The OC’s pilot two hours north in Malibu; much of the show is shot in Los Angeles County.
• Taking Off: Newport Beach is still proud of its most famous resident—John Wayne—and named the airport for the late actor. Full services are available for private jets. Although noise restrictions prevent commercial carriers from taking off and landing during the wee hours, the noise nevertheless prompted a proposed move—which never happened—to shift traffic to a South Orange County airport.
• Realtor 101: Crystal Cove, 866.208.9000, www.irvineranch.com/crystalcove; John McMonigle, Strada Properties, 949.640.3604, www.johnmcmonigle.com; Shady Canyon, 888.708.8450, www.shadycanyon.com; Zackary Wright, Sotheby’s International Realty, 949.644.9200, www.sothebysrealty.com