Retail space on the way

Alicia Robinson

In keeping with the office and retail mix of the area, a new building

being constructed at the corner of Irvine Avenue and 17th Street will house mainly retail space with some office space on the second floor.

The building replaces a Coco’s restaurant that occupied the site

from around 1960 until last year.

Developer Richard Dick & Associates will also renovate the

existing building on the site, called Westcliff Square. Construction

for both will cost about $2 million.

Richard Dick & Associates is on the verge of leasing the new

building to a retail company that would open its first Orange County

location there, property manager Melanie Briggs said.

One company is looking at taking most of the building, Briggs

said, but she can’t name the company before the leases are signed.

The new building will use stone on the exterior and a cylindrical

portion on one corner will be glass. The existing building on the

site houses attorney, dentist, real estate and other offices as well

as retail business including a hair salon and furniture consignment

shop. It will be slightly expanded and renovated to look more like

the new building, and the site will get all new landscaping, Briggs

said.

“We’ll be getting some new tenants on the first floor once the

renovations are done,” she said. “We’ll be expanding the retail,

putting in new restrooms [and] redoing the courtyard.”

Coco’s reorganized after a near bankruptcy and the company chose

to build new restaurants instead of renovating old ones, said Scott

Dobbins, a spokesman for Hankey Investment Co., the owner of the

site.

It was actually kind of sad to see Coco’s go because we don’t have

a lot of family restaurants,” Newport Beach Assistant City Manager

Sharon Wood said.

But the 17th Street corridor is a thriving business district, she

said.

“That is a very good business area,” she said. “I think it does

well at fitting in with the residential neighborhood around it, so

they’re good uses economically but also good uses that fit well with

residents.”

Richard Dick & Associates, which also leases office space to the

Daily Pilot, wanted to work on the new development because it was

successful with the nearby Westcliff Court, Briggs said.

“I’ve had a lot of interest in it [from possible tenants],” she

said. “A lot of people wanted to put another restaurant back in but

we didn’t go with restaurant because the parking requirement is so

high.”

The building should be complete with a tenant moved in by Aug. 1,

she said.