City waiting on Dunes future

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Though county negotiators have offered assurances

that the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort won’t be developed as a hotel,

city officials think it’s safer to take a wait-and-see approach.

Parties to the sale of the Dunes lease remain hushed. A spokesman for

Goldrich & Kest Industries has not returned several phone calls; Dunes

representatives, too, have said it’s too soon to discuss the

negotiations.

But a representative of the county, which owns the lease to the

property, said the potential buyers plan to keep the use as-is.

“The property is going to stay a resort as it is now,” said Stella

Oviedo, a representative of the county’s management services office.

“Nothing has been discussed about any changes. . . . They will be bound

by the same lease that now exists on the property.”

But that’s what scares some Newport Beach residents. Terms of the

current lease include an option to build a 275-room hotel. And the hotel

would not be subject to a Greenlight vote.

Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said officials’ opinions vary

on the city’s hopes for the land to some degree.

“I think it’s safe to say the city would prefer the hotel not be built

there,” he said.

Last year, the city wanted to buy the Dunes lease to assure it would

remain largely undeveloped. That plan died when Dunes owners closed the

bidding on the property before the city could decide on and make a bid.

Dunes officials in recent months have said they are in negotiations to

sell the lease but did not name the buyer.

Earlier this month, it was learned that real estate company Goldrich &

Kest Industries and partner firm Tahoe Shores were negotiating to buy the

county-owned lease on the state-owned land.

Oviedo said the target date for closing the deal is Aug. 6 because it

would affect one of the partner’s capital gains tax obligations.

“They’re being very hush-hush,” Bludau said. “We have to wait and

see.”