Lido jeweler to move on up

Alicia Robinson

More than 25 years after opening a jewelry store in Lido Marina

Village, Mardo Ayvazyan will leave quiet, brick-lined Via Oporto for

a faster pace on Coast Highway to offer his wares.

Ayvazyan, a Turkish immigrant and the proprietor of Jewelry By

Mardo on Via Oporto, plans to relocate his store in March or April to

a new two-story shop on Coast Highway that will be part of a

$5-million development that will include a Ferrari dealership.

The new digs, with about 3,000 more square feet than the current

location, will be appropriate for a store with the largest inventory

of fine jewelry in the city, Ayvazyan said.

“When you upgrade your inventory, you have to upgrade your

location,” he said. “[In] 1979, [Lido Marina Village] was a good

location, and this location, I could afford it.”

Lido Marina Village is a mixture of boutique shops, including

several jewelers and an art gallery, restaurants and boat businesses,

including yacht charter and gondola cruise companies. For businesses,

a lack of walk-in traffic and parking can be problems.

“Nobody ever comes here, and this [area] has decayed over the

years,” said Leo Gugasian, who is developing the Coast Highway

project.

Bruce Blackman of Blackman Ltd. Jewelers said his business in the

village has been a success in part because he offers hand- engraving,

a hard-to-find service. He moved from nearby Lafayette Street to his

Via Oporto shop in 1959 because it was on the bay and the rent was

reasonable, he said.

“We don’t get any foot traffic here at all; however, people come

here for a reason,” he said.

A group of developers floated a plan in March to replace Lido

Marina Village’s shops and restaurants with a luxury hotel, but no

major redevelopment or revitalization of the area appears imminent.

The properties there have a variety of owners, and “I think it’s

safe to say they haven’t worked with each other successfully in the

past,” Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said.

Hotel developers asked the City Council to create a specific plan

for how the area will be used, which was approved on May 25, but that

planning process will likely be a lengthy one.

“We aren’t even at the conceptual stage yet, because [the

developers] don’t own all the property,” Assistant City Manager

Sharon Wood said. “It’s going to be more of a city-run process, and

we’re going to have participation from the other property owners.”