Copyright 1986 by Scott Hays
Magazine: Los Angeles Magazine
Topic: The Big Orange County
Byline: Scott Hays

No, the California Dream isn’t dead—it has just moved south, where myriad planned communities rub shoulders with Fortune 500 companies and four-star hotels in the once vast ranchland of Newport-Irvine.

Joseph Cleary, a former surfer, at age 44 earns enough money producing commercials to afford an oceanfront home and the Newport Beach life he loves. Most of those commercials are commissioned by foreign businessmen who want to sell soft drinks and tennis shoes in countries like Japan by capitalizing on what they think of as the Southern California image. Cleary doesn’t have to go far for inspiration.

"How could you not sell this?" he asks from his patio. Outside his front door, like a stage setting painted on the pale blue sky, the blue green swells of the Pacific heave slowly beyond the surf. Farther out, a few white sails lean across the horizon. And on the sandy beach, three nubile young women are anointing their perfect bodies with cocoa butter and attempting to catch the last rays of the afternoon sun.

"In my commercials," explains Cleary, "I’m really selling the Southern California lifestyle. And here in Orange County is where you find it. What I have is the neatest back lot this side of Universal Studios."

Some back lot. Not far from Cleary’s home are miles of industrial and office parks housing Fortune 500 companies, "Big Eight" accounting firms, high-tech and biomedical research-and-development interests . . . cosmopolitan cultural and shopping centers and four-star hotels . . . a harbor, crowded every Sunday with one of the largest collections of pleasure craft in the world . . . myriad planned communities geared, like theme parks, to a variety of different lifestyles. . . endless stretches of more dazzling beaches filled with more clear-skinned youths. "I can find so many looks here," notes the enthusiastic commercial producer. "I can make it look like the Midwest, Naples, even Rio."

And if all this adds up to the Southern California dream, then Orange County—most particularly Newport Beach, Irvine and South Coast Metro—is where that dream is taking shape.

Thirty years ago this area was primarily rural. Today, it is a bustling Tomorrowland beyond Walt Disney’s wildest imaginings. How has all this come to pass in such a short time? It’s impossible to explain the phenomenal development of this area without first explaining that the majority of it was once part of the 120,000-acre Irvine Ranch, shaped from Spanish land grants after the Civil War by a wily entrepreneur from San Francisco named James Irvine.

The ranch, which included 10 miles of beach stretching from just south of the Santa Ana River to Laguna Beach and running 22 miles inland, was once used for grazing land and became an agriculture cornucopia that remained almost unchanged until the 1950s.

In 1955 Walt Disney opened his Magic Kingdom in Anaheim, and about the same time the Santa Ana Freeway was completed, connecting Los Angeles to the Orange County capital of Santa Ana. More freeways came and with them more people and businesses seeking to relocate. Change was in the air. Most of north-central and western Orange County was developed, and even in the southern third of the county—which has mostly retained its quiet Spanish character—there was no single developer with land holdings large enough to allow for well-thought-out communities.

When James Irvine’s grandson, Myford Irvine, died, control of the family holdings went to a foundation, which, in 1960, hired Los Angeles architect William Pereira to draw up a plan for the city’s future. His Irvine Company Plan covered a stretch of 77,000 acres from the Santa Ana Mountains to the Pacific and included a master plan for the residential, commercial and industrial development of this area. About the same time, 1,000 acres in the heart of "the ranch" were given to the regents of the University of California for the campus of the University of California at Irvine.

In 1977, a consortium of investors, including Donald Bren, bought the Irvine Company for $337 million. In 1983, Bren, in a transaction worth about $560 million, bought out the others to become the controlling shareholder of a company that owns one-sixth of Orange County. It is said that no one, not even William Randolph Hearst, has ever had control over such a large block of land in this state. "In Irvine we have a clean environment," Bren told Los Angeles Magazine shortly after taking power. "We don’t have to scrap off something that was created 75 years ago by people without any thoughtful plan. We don’t want urban sprawl. We want aesthetic quality, something different from Los Angeles."

The largest section of the Irvine Ranch is now the city of Irvine, incorporated in 1971. Probably the largest planned community in the country, Irvine offers acres of parks and man-made lakes within a five-mile bike ride in any direction. The Irvine Company, as the developer, starts with the raw land, which it owns, develops a master plan for the community in terms of housing style, density and character and builds the roads, sewers and other internal infrastructures. Individual home builders then purchase parcels within the community and adhere to a strict set of guidelines in building their project. The Irvine Company continues to serve as an umbrella marketing agent for the entire community and the builder products within.

During the past two years, the company captured about 13 percent of all housing sales in Orange County. In 1978 and 1979, that figure was 20 percent. Now, with several new major communities nearing completion, the company’s goal over the next four years is to move toward the 20 percent figure again, according to Dawn Bouzeos, the Irvine Company’s public-relations supervisor.

Interestingly, there are more jobs in Irvine than there are residents. "The biggest shift in recent years for the entire area has been away from that bedroom-community image," say Tom Nielson, president of the Irvine Company. "We’ve added a very important job base that represents tomorrow’s technologies. Certainly, along with that is the emergence of a very strong office market."

And that market not limited strictly to Irvine.

As you drive south on the San Diego Freeway toward Irvine, you’ll notice a checkerboard of high-rise office buildings and low-rise industrial sites on the right. This is Park Place, with four luxury hotels. To the left is South Coast Metro, a 2,240-acre development straddling Costa Mesa and Santa Ana that is considered by many to be the cultural and retail heart of the county. Some of its more familiar sights are South Coast Plaza—the county’s largest and reportedly most profitable regional shopping center, which is undertaking a major expansion; Center Tower, which is the country’s largest office building; South Coast Repertory; and the new Orange County Performing Arts Center.

"South Coast Metro has all the elements needed to define the central business district of a metropolitan area," says Henry Segerstrom, managing partner of Segerstrom and Sons, the company that owns South Coast Plaza and much of the land in the area. "We are just beginning to see the emergence of this community," adds the one-time lima-bean farmer, who is to South Coast Metro what Bren is to Irvine.

The Irvine Business Complex, another catchy name for an otherwise sprawling area undistinguished by boundaries, is across the freeway and farther south from South Coast Metro. The IBC includes Koll Center Newport and properties farther south like Fluor Corporation (now owned by Trammel Crow Company), Jamboree Center and the as-yet-unfinished Koll Center Irvine, touted as a pioneer effort in the construction of mid- and high-rise office buildings, hotels, restaurants and retail support systems.

"This area will be the core of Orange County, the most desirable place in Southern California to have major corporate and professional firms," vows Richard Ortwein, president of the Newport beach Division of the Koll Company.

There are 26 cities in Orange County, and it’s difficult for any one of them to presume the conversational "downtown" role. Nevertheless, joining the competition for that distinction are South Coast Metro and the Irvine Business Complex, each of which has formed its own consortium and launched aggressive publicity campaigns.

"In the past, each developer was marketing his own material," says developer Robert Alleborn, a representative of the IBC consortium. "This alliance enables us to draw tenants to the entire area, not just to one development."

And the competition has been good for business, adds Ortwein, whose Koll Company is also a member of the IBC alliance. "The community has benefitted because the competition has raised standards and attracted outside business to the area." Also drawn to the area have been a slew of hotels, such as the Irvine Hilton and Towers, the Irvine Marriott Hotel, Holiday Inn Irvine, Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel, Hotel Meridian Newport Beach, Sheraton Newport Beach and the brand-new Four Seasons.

According to the Chapman College Economic and Business Review Forecast, approximately 50,000 new jobs were created last year in Orange County, most in South Coast Metro and the Irvine Business Complex. Even more new jobs are expected this year. "There’s been a tremendous growth in the service industry, and that has been the engine of growth in Orange County," says Professor James Doti, head of the Chapman College Center for Economic Research. That growth has pushed the current median family income over $43,000 and produced new spending power.

Some of that spending is even trickling down from central and north Orange County, according to Mark Baldassare, an associate professor at UC Irvine who conducted a privately financed survey. "There’s some degree of white flight from those areas that are predominately minority," Baldassare says. "South county is becoming increasingly white. And it’s getting wealthy, while the rest of the county is just barely keeping pace."

Perhaps that’s because developers have had large enough land holdings to craft master plans that have "provided opportunities for work, play and living," says Orange County Supervisor Thomas Riley. "We have a unique Southern California oasis here, characterized by a dynamic economy, unparalled growth and a lifestyle second to none."

Newport Beach, meanwhile, represents the pinnacle of that lifestyle—its rewards to be enjoyed only by the most successful. Fifty miles south of Los Angeles, between Huntington and Laguna beaches, Newport is Orange County’s answer to Beverly Hills. Except, of course, that Beverly Hills has neither the beachfront nor pleasure-boat harbor. Long a retreat for Waspy clans of old-time Angleans, Newport has been reclaimed by armies of self-made millionaires seeking homes with backyard docks or ocean views and other such amenities befitting their newfound status. In addition, it has become a haven for myriad corporations and companies seeking prestige addresses, pleasant environments for their CEOs and close proximity to others with money and power. And on weekends this sun-kissed Beverly Hills by the sea hums with out-of-towners who come here to surf, stroll, sample area restaurants and gaze at rich Newporters cruising the harbor.

Many an entrepreneur has thrived on this lifestyle. Hobie Alter turned surfing and boating into an industry by pioneering custom-made surfboards and sailboats. . . Texan Amen Wardy rushed here to Fashion Island to service the county’s rich with his high-priced fashion store in what was once an old J. C. Penney auto store. . . Jim Slemons moved his car agency here 15 years ago and now has one of the largest Mercedes dealerships in the country. . . Vin Jorgenson became a millionaire by gearing his hardware stores to the boating industry.

Newport, although 98 percent developed, will continue to grow. Plans are being made for the partial development of 9,400 untouched acres of unincorporated oceanfront property just north of Laguna Beach. Most of that area, however, will be turned over to the county for open space, with about one-fourth of the land being used for the eventual construction of large estate homes.

But there’s more than just luxury homes and beautiful Mediterranean weather to help keep the populace entertained. In addition to the presence of the California Angels and the Los Angeles Rams, there are also rumors about the building of a $40 million sports arena that could accommodate a professional basketball team, and the ink is still wet for an agreement involving the construction of a $50-million national physical-fitness academy in Aliso Viejo, just south of Irvine.

For top-notch concerts, Orange County residents have the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa and the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater.

But when it come to culture, Orange County also has a lot to offer with the South Coast Repertory and the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which is scheduled to open on September 29. Located in South Coast Metro on land donated by Segerstrom and Sons, both complexes will serve as "tremendous magnets to this area," says Martin Benson, cofounder of the SCR with David Emmes.

Nowhere in the county has the spirit of giving been more evident than in the raising of funds for these facilities. The SCR has grown from a converted dime store to a two-theater complex, with another $1.5 million expansion under way. Built primarily with contributions and government grants, the SCR today offers a repertoire of classical, modern and contemporary plays on its Mainstage and new works on its Second Stage.

Equally exciting is the $70.7-million Orange County Performing Arts Center, paid for entirely by numerous local contributions and major gifts from Henry Segerstrom and others. "No longer will we have long commutes to Los Angeles to see a performance," says Timothy L. Strader, president and chief executive officer of the performing-arts center.

"There’s no doubt that both these facilities have had an enormous unifying effect in Orange County," adds Segerstrom. "I think they’re going to add a new dimension to our lives that we’ve lacked in the past."

But perhaps the most fascinating changes occurring in Orange County involve the recent arrival of biomedical and other research-and-development firms and the reciprocity between UC Irvine and the business community. So dynamic is the potential that the Irvine Company has committed itself to building Irvine Spectrum, a 2,200-acre center for high-tech, med-tech and bio-tech research at the junction of the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways.

In less than a year, the first phase of Irvine Spectrum has attracted 131 companies and 12,000 employees. Also to be integrated into the development are a community hospital, office buildings and restaurants.

"What we’re looking to create with Irvine Spectrum is a major international center of research technology and a business base that provides jobs for people living in the surrounding areas," says Richard Sim, president of the Irvine Company’s Industrial, Research and Development Company. "We will become known as the crown jewel of the high-tech clusters."

Newport Beach venture capitalist Charles Martin agrees that the potential of this specialized industry is staggering. His company, Enterprise Partners, is committed to the financing of "entrepreneur-scientists."

"It’s like being in frontier territory ," Martin says. "This industry will help fuel a great deal of the county’s growth. Innovative ideas and breakthrough technologies will make superstars of Orange County companies."

Certainly keeping pace with advanced research-and-development ambitions is UC Irvine, which is already one of the top research universities in the nation. As a result, the campus is now "a tremendous asset to the community, the state, the nation" and has aggressively sought ties with local business and industry, says chancellor Jack Peltason.

Two years ago, the Irvine based Nelson Research pharmaceuticals firm signed a 30-year lease with UCI to build a $6-million facility. Last fall, the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering, with a $20-million grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, announced it would establish a study center adjacent to UCI on land donated by the Irvine Company. In September, the Irvine Company agreed to build a research-and-development park on campus. The project will represent one of the nation’s largest corporate-university partnerships.

"Education is now a growth industry, especially here," says Peltason. "The plan is for this campus to become a world-class university. In order for us to accomplish that, we need the support of the county. In order for the county to reach its goals, a major university is needed."

Of course, all is not orange blossoms and sunflowers in

flourishing county. With a population exceeding 2 million and a rapidly growing urban core, it sorely needs an overhauled transportation system. Three primary transportation corridors are under consideration by the Orange County Board of Supervisors and several city governments. "I don’t think the argument is over whether these corridors will be built, but where and how extensively they will be," says the Irvine Company’s Nielsen.

Another undisputed problem is that John Wayne Airport cannot handle the county’s projected onslaught of passengers. Again, the board says it’s on top of the problem. "As you build, you further strain the transportation systems," acknowledges Supervisor Riley. "Orange County was provided the open space and lifestyle; now it must move forward to solve the major problems."

There is also a small but vocal antigrowth movement afoot, which one observer sees as the most compelling problem facing the continued growth of the county. But Orange County insiders say there is little real opposition to "well planned" development.

The continuing cry heard around the county is, "'We don’t want another Los Angeles,’ says longtime Orange County observer Martin Brower, who publishes a monthly newsletter. "There’s no chance of that. This county will become one of the great planned urban areas in the nation. We have the perfect blending of the right materials."
Not to mention Disneyland and the Pacific Ocean as your next-door neighbor.

Your Own Piece of Fantasyland

Perhaps you can imagine yourself in a glass showcase of your very own. Your 65-foot yacht is moored at your private dock. Your feet are up, and you’re sipping Dom Pérignon from a Lalique flute while watching the boats go by.

How much would such a fantasy cost? It depends on which island or exclusive community you choose. There’s Balboa Peninsula, West Bluff, West Newport, Balboa Island, East Bluff, Newport Heights, Dover Shores, Lido Isle, Lido Sands, Corona del Mar, Westcliff, Harbor Island, Newport Island and Linda Isle, to name just a few.

You say you’re a private person. Does an island of only eight neighbors, all fellow yachtsmen, sound private enough? For about $3 million a broker like William Cote of Cote Realty and Investment Company, Newport Beach, who specializes in luxury estates, can set you up here on very private Collins Island, once owned by the late James Cagney. And on Linda Isle, the setting for the movie The Sands of Iwo Jima, Cote has a listing for a $3.25-million four-bedroom plus maid’s quarters. It has a bayfront location, of course, with its own pier and slip. Harbor Island, one of Newport’s most exclusive retreats, and Lido Isle, once home to John Wayne, are other desirable retreats for the yachting set. Homes on Harbor Island range from $3 million to $5 million. Most properties on Lido Isle range from $900,000 to $3 million.

But perhaps your idea of terrestrial glory is an estate perched above the Pacific in one of those exclusive gated communities such as Irvine Cove or the newer Harbor Ridge. The price tag: from $1.7 million to $4 million.

Maybe you can’t afford an ocean view but still want to be within jogging distance of the beach. There are still some homes, two blocks from the beach in Corona del Mar, Newport’s southernmost section, that are less costly than the $1-million-plus residences on the bluff. You might find a nice fixer-upper for $350,000. And in some parts of Newport Beach there are still a few single-family homes on the sand that sell for $650,000 up to $2.2 million, according to Jan Debay of Grubb and Ellis, Newport Beach.

Things weren’t always so expensive here. In 1890 brothers James and Robert McFadden bought 1,000 acres of Newport—including Lido and Balboa islands—for $1,000. And in 1956 two Newport Beach real-estate brokers reportedly committed suicide because business was so bad. In 1986, however, plenty of people would die for the chance to have property here before beachfront property became the precious commodity it is today.

Still, housing in southern Orange County is not all on the water and designed for the very rich. In fact, although the county’s strong job market is attracting new and resale buyers from other states, first-time buyers moving from apartments within the county are the backbone of the real-estate market. And most of those first-time buyers head for the many planned inland communities in places like Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel and Rancho Santa Margarita. And although the median price of a resale home in the county is almost double the national average—about $137,000—so is the county’s median family income of $43,000. What do these buyers get for their money?

The city of Irvine’s Woodbridge community, one of five areas planned by the Irvine Company, is one example of what buyers can expect to get. It now has 25,000 residents and is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year as one of the premier planned communities in the nation. There are still some new homes for sale in Woodbridge, but the majority of opportunities for housing are in resales. Single-family homes range from $95,000 for an attached unit up to $300,000 for a waterfront home. Amenities in this 1,700-acre community in central Irvine include two man-made lakes, walking and bicycle paths, swimming pools, parks and lagoons with beaches for sunbathing. There are also churches, shopping centers and commercial and medical facilities.

Each one of Irvine’s communities is geared toward a different theme. Windwood, designed primarily for younger and first-time home buyers, for instance, offers a mix of garden and town houses and apartments and such recreational amenities as tennis courts and swimming complexes. Prices start at about $125,000. Northwood features "a traditional lifestyle" with one- and two-story town houses, detached family residences with floor plans from just less than 1,000 square feet to almost 3,000 square feet. Prices are from $120,000 to $230,000.

The newest community in Irvine, however, is 833-acre Westpark, on where there will be some 5,550 new homes, town houses and apartments priced from $70,000 to $200,000. Scheduled to open later this year or early in 1987, Irvine’s first new community since the mid 1970s will feature Mediterranean architecture and 40 acres of parks. The Irvine Company is also developing new communities in East Tustin and Orange. In addition, the company has individual projects under way in Newport Beach, including Newport North, a community of 900 units, most of them apartments and town houses, slated to open this fall. Prices have not yet been determined, according to Dawn Bouzeos of the Irvine Company.

Planned communities are certainly not new to the area. In fact, Mission Viejo, a 10,000-acre planned community five miles east of Laguna Beach, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Today, 13 elementary schools, four intermediate schools and six high schools serve the community, which also includes a mall, business and financial centers and a 124-acre lake.

In 1965, the first residents bought homes for about $20,000. Today those homes are selling for $160,000 and up, according to Wendy Wetzel, director of corporate affairs for the Mission Viejo Company. Prices for current Mission Viejo projects range from under $80,000 for a condo in Hillcrest Village to $260,000 for a home in gate-guarded Canyon Crest. Resales, however, go much higher, and custom-built homes in Tres Vista (Mission Viejo sold the lots, and buyers built their own homes) are going for $400,000 to $1-million-plus for lakefront properties. There are also some empty lots available for $450,000.

Mission Viejo Company is also developing a neighboring planned community, Aliso Viejo. The 6,600-acre project currently has 2,500 residents living in 1,100 homes. In the next 20 years, there will be 53,000 residents living in 20,000 homes to be constructed here. Other communities adjoining Irvine that offer moderate prices are El Toro, Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel, where new homes vary in price from $120,000 to $275,000.

Rancho Santa Margarita, located between Mission Viejo and Coto de Caza, is Orange County’s newest town. Also a self-contained, master-planned community, it will be completed 15 to 20 years from now. Phase one of the residential portion, however, opened for sale last month with prices ranging from $55,000 for a small condominium to $170,000 for a single-family detached home. Amenities include a park, a beach club, a Catholic high school and a 13-acre lake. A 400-acre business park is also being developed.

Leisure World is the largest gate-guarded senior-citizen community in the county, with more than 21,000 residents and $25 million of recreational facilities. Located off the San Diego Freeway at El Toro Road in Laguna Hills, Leisure World’s cooperative homes range in price from $40,000 to $80,000; and condominiums from $70,000 to $350,000. There are 80 different floor plans, including single-family detached houses, duplexes, four-plexes and even a 14-story high-rise of condo units.

In Costa Mesa, adjacent to Newport and Huntington beaches, because there is practically no land available to build on, desirable neighborhoods are older and found in areas like South Coast metro, where houses range from $155,000 to $270,000. Homes in the even older Mesa Verde area are listed at from $133,000 to $440,000.