Balboa theater rises again
A Christmas present for Orange County? It could be if Lab Holding CEO Shaheen Sadeghi can work his magic again, this time with the 88-year-old Balboa Theater on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula. Sadeghi brought Costa Mesa the unconventional LAB and Camp anti-malls, converted Anaheim’s vacant citrus packing house into a popular food court, and is working on unusual retail concepts in several other Orange County cities.
But the aging and certainly historic Balboa Theater can be a challenge. Opened in 1928 as the Ritz Theater to stage then-popular vaudeville shows, the ensuing Balboa Theater was a long-popular movie house, tried specialty movies as tastes changed, and finally closed in 1982.
In an attempt to shore up the vacant landmark, the city of Newport Beach purchased the theater on Balboa Boulevard in 1988 for $480,000, but nothing came of the venue. In 2010 a nonprofit organization called the Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation tried to raise funds for a 320-seat multiuse venue, but that effort failed.
Now comes Lab Holding. The Newport Beach City Council voted to sell the theater to the firm for $1 million. Lab Holding plans to invest more money to restore the theater and to retain its original architecture, even keeping the marquee. Planned are a café, opening to exterior traffic; a small stage with stand-up room for live music; and a larger stage with seating for private events. Sadeghi said he prefers to work with aging buildings. He has his work cut out for him.
Revamped Laguna Beach festival
When art lovers enter Laguna Beach’s Festival of Arts complex next summer, they will be in for a surprise – the art display grounds will be entirely different from what visitors have been accustomed to since 1964. Beyond the recently redesigned and rebuilt façade, the 56-year-old art display structures – cement canopies – are being demolished, and a completely new layout will be provided for gallery spaces, the concert area and art workshops.
Tensile roof pavilions will shelter artwork from sun and rain, the green picnic lawn will be relocated nearer the entrance, the gift shop will be relocated and expanded, and the junior art exhibit will be nearer the entrance. Plans, which recently received an award from the American Institute of Architects Orange County, also call for wider pathways and, to everyone’s relief, additional and updated restrooms.
The improvement project was approved by the Laguna Beach City Council in July 2015, but was postponed a year due to the threat of El Niño storm conditions. The project, by Turner Construction Co., is scheduled to be completed in time for July’s Festival of Arts opening.
Orange County Amazon facility to open
Want same-day delivery of products ordered from Amazon.com? Although Amazon has several giant storage facilities in the Inland Empire, the first such facility in Orange County is on its way.
Amazon has leased 170,000 square feet in the Irvine Crossing industrial/data facility on Von Karman Avenue near Main Street in Irvine, near John Wayne Airport. Amazon’s goal nationally is to deliver more than 10,000 of its most popular items within two hours.
Great park may have music amphitheater
Lovers of live outdoor music were delighted to learn that FivePoint Communities, developer of Great Park Homes adjacent to Irvine’s Great Park, and Live Nation Entertainment, which operated the now-closed Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, have plans to develop a temporary amphitheater in Irvine.
But it remains to be seen whether Irvine residents, including those living in Great Park Neighborhoods, will allow the city to provide a permit for the music venue, planned for 12,000 seats, 4,500 parking spaces and night lights. Traffic, noise and lights have typically jarred residents all over the county. When the 16,000-seat Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre was opened in 1980, its only neighbor was the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
The 44-acre site for the proposed interim amphitheater is on FivePoint land at the end of the former air base runways and adjacent to the Great Park. FivePoint would lend the land
and Live Nation would develop the amphitheater. The new facility could be ready for the 2017 concert season if permission is granted.
