Balboa Bay Club unveils expansion plans

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Sometimes, a vacant lot and a couple of caterpillars

is all that are needed to get the city’s movers and shakers excited.

“The first thing I have to say is -- yippee!” said a beaming Beverly

Ray, the chairwoman of International Bay Clubs’ board of directors,

during a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the Balboa Bay Club’s

$55-million renovation project.

“I never thought this day would come,” she said. “In my wildest

dreams, I never thought this day would come.”

On Monday, construction of a new private clubhouse will begin on the

land. Completion of the building, which will include 28 guest rooms, spas

and fitness facilities, is expected by August.

During the project’s second phase, the club facilities on the

property’s south side will be leveled to make room for a 131-room luxury

hotel, which is scheduled to open in January 2003.

Sipping champagne, about 100 guests walked past a line of concept

boards that displayed fabric and furniture samples for the Italian

Renaissance-style interior design.

“We do not have a five-star hotel south of L.A.,” said Henry

Schielein, the club’s president and chief operating officer. “I challenge

our team to be the next five-star hotel in Southern California.”

City officials commended the club, which opened in 1948, as the

Newport Beach’s “hospitality and social center,”

“Newport Beach supports this project,” said Councilman Dennis O’Neil,

who represented Mayor John Noyes and handed Ray a city proclamation. “We

are really looking forward to this facility.”

In return, David Wooten, the president of International Bay Clubs,

handed O’Neil a “catch-up” rent check for $1.44 million.

“Now that we’ve got the proclamation, I do hereby present this to

you,” Wooten said.

With so many of the city’s top officials shoulder to shoulder, the

event couldn’t go off without some political talk. And some pointed out

that with the passage of the slow-growth Greenlight Initiative, similar

groundbreakings might become rare.

“This may be the last great project of any significance in Newport

Beach,” said Stephen Jones, the president of Irvine-based developer

Snyder Langston, which will construct the buildings.

Then came the obligatory golden spade pictures that included such club

supporters as Councilmen O’Neil and Tod Ridgeway, former Mayor Clarence

Turner and State Board of Education member Marian Bergeson, followed by a

luncheon to celebrate the project’s launch.

Club officials said residents in nearby apartment buildings had chosen

to stay despite advance notice of the construction work.

Other club members said they couldn’t wait to make use of the new

buildings.

“I think it’s fantastic,” said Tom Lambert, a 25-year member who

watched the ceremony from a distance.

“I like what they are doing here for members,” he said. “The new spa

will be great.”

But others said they had little knowledge about the changes.

“They’re building some hotel, I think,” said Mike Giddings, a member

for more than 20 years, while taking a brief break from his laps in the

club’s swimming pool. “If it makes [the club] better -- great!”