Newport Beach’s city council voted unanimously to approve a plan replacing an aging office campus near John Wayne Airport with 132 new for-sale townhomes, clearing the way for TPG Angelo Gordon and Lincoln Property Company to demolish two office buildings and a parking structure at 1200-1300 Dove Street and 4041 MacArthur Boulevard. The vote, held on July 28, formalizes a 10-year development agreement requiring the developer to pay a $3 million public-benefit fee while setting aside seven units for very-low-income households.
The site, known as the Redstone Campus, includes a five-story office building, a three-story office building, and a three-story parking garage spread across 6.5 acres, according to The Real Deal. TPG Angelo Gordon and Lincoln Property Company purchased the Redstone Campus from EQ Office in 2018 for $161 million as part of a larger eight-building office portfolio acquisition. The 1300 Dove Street building is currently about 89 percent occupied, and coworking provider Premier Workspaces operates out of a former WeWork space there spanning roughly 23,800 square feet within the complex’s approximately 173,000 total square feet of office buildings.
What’s Replacing the Office Park
In place of the offices, crews will erect 36 buildings totaling 297,677 square feet of residential space, according to filings reviewed by CA.gov CEQAnet. The townhomes will include two-, three- and four-bedroom layouts ranging from 1,251 to 2,562 square feet, each with its own two-car garage, per The Real Deal’s reporting. The community is also slated to include three shared courtyards and a 9,000-square-foot landscaped walkway along MacArthur Boulevard that will be open to the public.
Because the parcel sits within John Wayne Airport’s 60 dBA noise contour, the project must meet specialized acoustic attenuation standards to keep interior noise at or below 45 dBA, according to the City of Newport Beach. The Airport Land Use Commission reviews projects in the area for height, safety, and sound compatibility before homes can be built this close to the runway. The 6.5-acre site previously allowed up to 325 units under default commercial overlay density limits before the smaller 132-unit townhome plan was submitted.
Affordable Units and a Contested Fee Break
Of the 132 planned residences, seven are designated for purchase by very-low-income households. Under California’s Density Bonus Law, allocating that roughly 5 percent share of units to very-low-income buyers qualified the developer for a reduced in-lieu park fee of approximately $1.01 million, or $7,661 per unit, according to Citizen Portal. Opponents have argued that concession effectively waived an estimated $5.5 million in standard municipal park fees the city would otherwise have collected…