Corona del Mar anything but sleepy

Alicia Robinson

Taking a stroll around Corona del Mar’s business district is a much

different affair today than it was 30 or 40 years ago.

For many years, it didn’t even have a Starbucks.

“It was a pretty sleepy beach town. It was starting to become a

primary residence area, but there was a lot of the cottages and

weekend homes of people that lived up in L.A.,” said Mark Schulein,

president of Crown Ace Hardware. “I remember Fashion Island was a

glorified strip mall of sorts.”

How times have changed. Schulein’s family took over the Corona del

Mar hardware store about 30 years ago, after his father bought the

building as an investment, and today the Schuleins have 11 stores

around Orange County.

The strip of Coast Highway that makes up the village’s business

improvement district has experienced similar prosperity. A number of

interior-design shops have popped up along with the influx of wealthy

residents to the village and the new homes in adjacent Newport Coast.

You can get a quick lunch at Baja Fresh or a white tablecloth dinner

at the Five Crowns.

“It’s a real reflection of the community that lives here, and

there is a lot of basic retail, high-end services and boutique shops

with many destination restaurants,” said Chip Stassel, a State Farm

insurance agent and president of the Corona del Mar Chamber of

Commerce. “We even have our own assisted-living center.”

Alongside older, service-oriented businesses like the hardware

store and real estate offices are unique shops such as the

Hearthstone, which sells fireplaces and accessories, and clothing and

jewelry boutiques.

Today’s thriving business district didn’t come without some pain.

Some of the older businesses were squeezed out in the late 1960s by

major development at Fashion Island, and some thought Corona del Mar

would disappear, said Walt Boice, an associate at commercial real

estate firm Realonomics Corp.

“We all of a sudden had this huge increase in commercial space and

we didn’t have enough people [to support it],” he said. “A good part

of the town was gas stations, banks and restaurants.”

But the village has been nothing if not adaptable, and as

businesses go, they are replaced, in some cases by success stories

like Claudia Agudelo’s.

After immigrating here from Colombia as a 23-year-old, Agudelo

took some classes at a community college and learned to design

jewelry, which she sold on the streets of Los Angeles.

She began selling at craft shows and finally got a spot at the

Orange County Market Place in Costa Mesa. From there, it wasn’t long

until she got a trunk show at Nordstrom, and soon she needed her own

shop.

She’s owned EXEX Jewelry in Corona del Mar for five years now, and

she loves it there. In honor of the Centennial, Agudelo designed

jewelry depicting the flowers after which the village streets are

named.

“I think Corona del Mar has so much potential,” Agudelo said.

“It’s actually a walking city. You can walk to get coffee at

Starbucks; you can walk and get your breakfast at a bagel cafe.”

And the village is about to get more pedestrian-friendly. Once its

stretch of Coast Highway is relinquished to the city of Newport Beach

on Thursday, officials can move ahead with plans to improve the

median and add crosswalks.

While the village will continue to suffer a parking shortage, new

directional signs and other street improvements will go far toward

transforming the business district, Stassel said.

“We’re kind of at the apex of change, celebrating our 100-year

anniversary,” he said. “Corona del Mar is growing up.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.