Irvine Company is turning parking into housing near Fashion Island, continuing the slow transformation of Newport Center from a daytime office-and-retail district into a denser live-work enclave.

The prolific Orange County developer started construction on a five-story, 184-unit apartment building at 800 San Clemente Drive in Newport Beach, the Orange County Business Journal reported. The firm completed demolition of a four-story, 842-space parking garage on the 2.2-acre site near the shopping center. 

Irvine Company secured construction permits for the project last month. The development will expand Irvine Company’s existing Villas Fashion Island complex, a 524-unit apartment property that opened in 2017. Once complete, the combined development will total 708 units. Plans call for roughly 225,000 square feet of residential space with two subterranean parking levels featuring 287 spaces. Amenities will include a pool, sauna, fitness center, coworking areas and outdoor courtyards, as well as access to the existing Villas Fashion Island amenities including pools, a clubhouse, yoga studio and lounges.

The 2.2-acre infill site sits in the heart of Newport Center, where city officials have increasingly pushed for housing additions to balance out the area’s concentration of offices, retail and employment hubs. Newport Beach planners framed the project as a way to activate land that had become less useful in a post-pandemic era when parking demand has softened in some commercial districts.

“This project takes a site that wasn’t serving a specific use and turns it into housing that helps meet the city’s needs,” Oscar Orozco, an associate planner with the City of Newport Beach, told the Business Journal.

The development from the Donald Bren-led firm moved forward through an administrative approval process under the North Newport Center Planned Community zoning rules, allowing city staff to sign off without Planning Commission or city council hearings. The entitlement path reflects how Newport Beach has tried to streamline some residential projects in targeted growth areas, particularly near existing commercial infrastructure. The City of Newport Beach is required by the state to plan for 4,845 new units of housing by 2029. 

The project is expected to wrap up by 2028. 

— Chris Malone Méndez

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