The grading permits are issued and construction equipment is ready to roll on a three-level parking structure marking the first phase of the much anticipated landside renovation of the Dana Point Harbor.
Dana Point Harbor Partners won a 66-year lease in 2018 from the OC Board of Supervisors to renovate the 53-year-old county harbor, including the 120,000-square-foot area of the harbor that will house shops, restaurants, public gathering spaces and an expansive boardwalk connecting Doheny State Beach to Baby Beach.
“This is a milestone,” Bryon Ward, president of Burnham Ward Properties and the development partner heading up the commercial core overhaul, said of Wednesday’s ceremonial groundbreaking at the site where the parking structure will go. The event included community, county and city leaders and harbor merchants, and the development partners presented the timeline guiding the harbor project forward, which is projected to take five to six more years.
Work on the new 2,265-slip marina is already underway, with 772 completed. There will also be additional guest boat slips, which aren’t included in the count. Joe Ueberroth, of Bellwether Financial Group, is handling those renovations.
Bob Olson, of R.D. Olson, rounds out the development partnership and is working on entitlements through the California Coastal Commission for two new hotels.
“We spent 2020 and 2021 redesigning and permitting everything,” Ward said of the commercial core element, adding that they were postured to start earlier but, because of the market’s volatility and inflation, had to figure out new financing for the project, now projected at $600 million.
They also had to negotiate new utility permits with the South Coast Water District, he said. “Everything needed to be upgraded.”
The parking structure will be built on the left side of Golden Lantern at the entrance of Dana Point Harbor. It will be three levels, but won’t obscure a view of the new buildings or the…
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