I know some of you are fans of these Fazio courses. Today's OC Register reports that they'll be closed for 2 years for hotel construction and course renovation.
Pelican Hill refuses to coast
Irvine Co. will close the two elite golf courses there while it constructs a 5-star resort.
By MICHELE HIMMELBERG
The Orange County Register
The Irvine Co. will shut down its ocean-view golf courses at Pelican Hill for two years as it builds an all-inclusive resort called Pelican Hill at Newport Coast. Construction will begin later this summer.
The resort, designed to attract world travelers to the Orange County coastline, will offer a 204-room hotel managed by the Irvine Co. and 128 vacation villas perched above the Pacific.
The villas, a new golf clubhouse and a restaurant are scheduled to open in late 2007, with the hotel opening its doors a year later, the company reported Thursday.
The Irvine Co. aims to build and operate a five-star property on 115 acres, completing its 9,300-acre Newport Coast development. Plans include a second restaurant, a 24,000- square-foot spa, meeting rooms and specialty shops.
With Pelican Hill, Orange County's coastline will boast nearly a dozen luxury resorts. A consortium of hotels and golf courses recently banded together to market the region as The OCeanfront.
"The Orange County coast is maturing and Newport Coast is a big part of that," said Clarence Barker, president of the company's investment-properties group. "We've been planning this project for some time and this is kind of the last piece. It puts the puzzle together."
Despite the rapid growth of resorts in the area, Barker said he's confident that Pelican Hill will be able to thrive among the competition.
"We want this to be one that people around the world will talk about," he said. "The beauty and the message of Orange County is the opportunity to come and play golf, hike in open space and have unlimited access to the ocean."
The company decided to close the golf courses rather than disrupt patrons as it builds the resort and installs a comprehensive 1.2-million-gallon water-management system.
Golf officials are using the opportunity to bring back original designer Tom Fazio to assess the 14-year-old Ocean South Course and the Ocean North Course and recommend enhancements.
The practice facility at Pelican Hill golf course will close on July 31.
"We sent out a personal letter (Thursday) to our regular players explaining what's happening and offering them a little gift," said Hans Maissen, general manager of the course, whose extensive hotel- management experience may land him a new role when the resort is complete.
That gift is a free round of golf before the courses close.
The company declined to put a price tag on the project. Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, a hotel research firm in Costa Mesa, estimated that construction costs for the hotel and villas could run $70 million.
The most innovative part of the Pelican Hill resort could be its water-management system. It will collect the 1.2 million gallons of water in underground cisterns and recycle it to irrigate the two golf courses.
The resort lies along a stretch of coast that has been deemed biologically sensitive and all runoff is prohibited, said Kurt Berchtold, spokesman with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board.
"We're significantly exceeding what we need to do according to regulations," said Jennifer Hieger, a company spokeswoman. "The system will be able to handle storms that dump up to 2 inches of rain a day."
Such storms are unusual, given that the average annual rainfall in Newport Beach is 12 inches.
Plans for Pelican Hill resort were first announced in 2003.
The residential portion of the resort, which includes two-bedroom and three-bedroom units, reflects a trend in luxury resorts. It brings in revenue upfront and makes it easier to finance the project.
The Irvine Co. plans to sell them on a "fractional ownership" basis, with owners buying a month or two of use.
The company solicited comments from residents in Newport Coast, who were mostly concerned about noise and lights, Barker said.
The company addressed those concerns and will build two parking garages with roofs that will be covered with Italian gardens. The residences above Pelican Hill will see the gardens, and all lights will be enclosed in the parking garages, Barker said.
The resort is part of the Irvine Co.'s master plan, which is governed by the Local Coastal Program and was approved in 1988 by the California Coastal Commission.