Cannery Village packs them in

Alicia Robinson

While they share part of a name, the multimillion-dollar Cannery

Lofts overlooking the Rhine Channel have little in common with John

Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.

The lofts are a focal point of Cannery Village, the section of

Newport Beach where people historically built ships and canned fish,

and area business owners couldn’t be more pleased that it’s becoming

less and less like a literary skid row.

“I think it’s good,” said Laura Cano, who owns the Beach Boutique

on Newport Boulevard. “It helps the business, the more people that we

have.”

A big part of the rejuvenation has come from the Cannery Lofts, a

controversial live/work development some argued was too big and too

uniform to fit the eclectic and historic nature of the area.

Resistance from residents drew out the planning process for the

21-unit project, but the units -- with living space above and

business space below designed for one owner -- sold out rapidly for

more than $1 million each, and all but one are now occupied, Cannery

Lofts developer Kevin Weeda said.

Area business owners say they haven’t seen a notable boost in

commerce from the small crop of new residents, but overall they think

the changes will be good for everyone.

“It’s good to see a good developer work with the city and develop

a plan that’s compatible with the area,” said Orazio Salamone, owner

of the Newport Brewing Company, a restaurant and microbrewery on

Newport Boulevard about a block from the Cannery Lofts. “I don’t see

anything negative about it, and I saw a lot of negative here before.”

The new buildings in the area are a positive improvement because

they sustain the neighborhood’s eclectic nature, said David

Farnsworth, owner of Laventina’s Big Cheese Pizza on Newport

Boulevard.

But in terms of his business, he said: “I don’t think there’s been

any effect at all. It’s just kind of the natural change as the

buildings get run down and the property values soar.”

The mixed-use redevelopment has brought some new businesses other

than the occupants of the live/work spaces. About a block north of

the Cannery Lofts is Shampoo, a salon that David and Stephanie

Gilbert just opened.

“We are the rejuvenation,” David Gilbert said. “We’ve only been

here a month.”

The area is eclectic and has a small-town feel, and that’s what

the Gilberts like about it. Their customers are a mixture of walk-in

and people who know them from other salons where they’ve worked, they

said.

“It seems that people [who live in the area] want to patronize the

local businesses,” Stephanie Gilbert said.

People were initially concerned that the Cannery Lofts would

change the character of the neighborhood, but the Newport Beach City

Council unanimously approved the project. The controversy seems to

have died down as people have grown used to the tall, angular,

modern-looking loft structures.

And they’re likely to get even more used to them, because similar

projects are already in the works, though none on the scale of the

Cannery Lofts. Weeda is building the 29th Street Lofts, a four-unit

project that already has a list of 100 prospective buyers, and real

estate magnate John McMonigle has created a set of three commercial

spaces topped by three live/work lofts set for completion in early

2005.

With freeways getting more crowded and telecommuting becoming a

viable option, Weeda expects the market for live/work developments to

grow.

“This is a pretty good lifestyle choice,” he said. “You could get

rid of a car if you lived here.”