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As the Dana Point Harbor Partners (DPHP) works towards commencing construction on the landside portion of the $610 million harbor revitalization project, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday, Dec. 19, to approve documents necessary for the partners to enter into a loan agreement for the project.
The approval, granted as a consent calendar item voted on in one fell motion with other routine items, allows DPHP to acquire a $60 million loan to move forward with phases five through seven of the marina revitalization, build the harbor parking structure and extend Golden Lantern Street.
“This past year, we’ve made more progress on the Harbor revitalization than in decades prior,” Orange County Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley said in an email.
“We’ve opened three new phases in our marina, with the fourth completing this month,” Foley continued. “This Board’s action today allows us to commence a new landmark and officially begin construction on the commercial core in January.”
Bryon Ward, president of Burnham Ward Properties—a member of the DP Harbor Partners—noted that the revitalization was already well underway on the water side; however, this approval allows DPHP to move forward with the land-side construction.
“To date, we’ve replaced about 580 docks,” Ward said. “What this does, is it really clears the path forward for us to start on the land side.
“What this estoppel allows us to do is we put into place, basically, a loan that we’re going to tap into to accelerate the development of the land side and also to keep the water side construction moving forward as well,” Ward continued.
The loan agreement with Citizens Business Bank states that DPHP is “not in breach or default of any of the terms, conditions, or provisions of the ground lease,” is not in default, and that the DPHP “does not have any claims, causes of action, judgments, liabilities or demands of any kind,” against the County about the harbor ground lease.
With the agreement in place, DPHP can begin on the first two phases of the land-side construction: the parking structure and extension of Golden Lantern.
“We’re not just going to be building the parking structure, but we’re also going to be reworking the extension of Golden Lantern down into the project based upon the final development plan for the commercial core,” Ward said. “There will be a surface parking lot at the end of the entrance road, a small surface parking lot that we call, a sort of, our valet drop point area. All of that will be completed, as well.”
The Golden Lantern extension looks to expand the road down into the revitalized harbor, into the parking structure, featuring a pedestrian pathway and landscaping.
The harbor revitalization is now anticipated to cost roughly $610 million, which Ward explained reflected upgrades to the architecture, design and open space and rising construction costs.
Construction on the parking structure is expected to begin in January and will take roughly 12 months to complete.
Ward noted that while he’d love to have the harbor revitalization completed by the 2028 Olympics, a lot of the timeline is impacted by outside agencies like the California Coastal Commission, which voted in April to give itself a one-year extension to discuss the two proposed hotel developments.
“I love the target; I think it’s a meaningful and important target,” Ward said. “We will have a lot of, most of, the harbor done by that time frame. That is our objective that is based upon our schedule, but a lot of our future phases of the harbor do rely on entitlements and things that are outside of our control.”
“But we remain committed to pushing the project forward as quickly as we can,” Ward said. “We’re just excited to finally be starting the landside.”
