By Eric Engelbert
A Car Wash at the Center of a Real Estate Revolution
In the early 2000s, roughly 30 percent of the world's construction cranes were operating in Berlin as Germany's reunified capital rebuilt its skyline in a compressed window of time. City blocks that had sat frozen for decades suddenly became some of the most consequential building sites on earth.
Newport Beach is not Berlin. But the concentration of major development projects now converging on Newport Center tells a version of the same story: what happens when a single neighborhood becomes the focal point of a region's housing future all at once.
Luxury residential towers are rising near Fashion Island. The former Newport Beach Marriott is converting to Ritz-Carlton Residences. The Irvine Company has approvals for nearly 800 apartments across multiple Newport Center sites. Related California is planning two 22-story towers at the site of the old Edwards Big Newport cinema.
And now, a car wash that served this community for more than 51 years has quietly closed. Its 1.26-acre lot has been folded into the Irvine Company's growing land position in Newport Center, set to become part of the Block 100 apartment development adjacent to Fashion Island.
This is the story of 150 Newport Center Drive West, and the twelve-year journey that ended there.
Fifty-One Years on the Suds Beat
The Newport Beach Car Wash opened in the mid-1970s at the intersection of Newport Center Drive West and Anacapa Drive, just inside the loop of streets that surround Fashion Island. For more than half a century it occupied a spot that, in retrospect, was always going to be worth considerably more than the business sitting on it.
Newport Center was conceived and built by the Irvine Company as a planned commercial and retail hub for the growing communities of South Orange County. The same land values that made the area work for Class A office towers and department stores also made a 1.26-acre surface parcel with aging car wash infrastructure an eventual redevelopment target. The only question was when.
What kept the car wash running so long was a combination of loyal customers and the full-service model that distinguished it from the automated drive-through competitors expanding across Southern California. It was also the simple fact that redeveloping anything in Newport Beach takes longer than most developers expect.
"The business of car washes has changed," managing partner Tod Ridgeway told the Orange County Business Journal in June 2026. "You just can't do that anymore." He was referring to the labor-intensive, full-service operation the car wash had relied on for decades.
He did not sound particularly nostalgic. He sounded like someone who had spent twelve years trying to build something larger on that lot and had finally found a different way forward.
Tod Ridgeway: Former Mayor, Long-Time Believer in Mixed-Use
Ridgeway is not simply a car wash operator. He served as Mayor of Newport Beach and spent years as a vocal advocate for bringing mixed-use development to Fashion Island and the broader Newport Center area.
"When there was a general plan amendment in 2006, I championed mixed-use in Fashion Island," he told the Business Journal. "I did not have the unanimous support of the council at that point in time, but I was always a believer in mixed-use."
The 2006 push did not produce the outcome Ridgeway envisioned. But he was directionally correct about where Newport Center was heading. The transformation that is now underway, two decades later, vindicates the argument he was making then.
In 2014, Ridgeway's managing partnership, Newport Anacapa Associates LLC, purchased the 1.26-acre car wash property for $11.8 million, according to CoStar records. The site sits at 150 Newport Center Drive West, bordered by Newport Center Drive to the south and Anacapa Drive to the east, directly adjacent to the Gateway Plaza office campus that the Irvine Company later targeted for its Block 100 apartment project.
From the moment Newport Anacapa closed the deal, the plan was to develop it.
A Decade of Development Attempts
Between 2014 and 2026, Newport Anacapa Associates pursued at least three separate development concepts for the car wash site. Each one met a different kind of obstacle.
The first proposal was a 125-room hotel. Hotels in Newport Beach require a General Plan Amendment, which in Newport Beach becomes subject to a public vote if opponents gather sufficient signatures. Opponents did. Newport Beach voters rejected the hotel proposal, and the concept was abandoned.
The partnership turned to condominiums. An early iteration called for a six-story, 49-unit condominium building. That plan was later revised downward to a four-story, 28-unit luxury condominium project with units averaging roughly 2,500 to 3,000 square feet each. The revised design included a rooftop pool and two levels of below-grade parking, reaching a total height of approximately 53 feet.
The 28-unit project required a General Plan Amendment, a Zone Code Amendment, a Planned Community Development Plan, a Major Site Development Review, a Tentative Tract Map, and a Development Agreement. An Environmental Impact Report Notice of Preparation was filed in November 2020. The assigned city planner was Liz Westmoreland.
The project appeared to be moving. Then the rules changed underneath it.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| Mid-1970s | Newport Beach Car Wash opens at 150 Newport Center Drive West |
| 2006 | Tod Ridgeway, then Newport Beach Mayor, champions mixed-use development at Fashion Island in General Plan Amendment; does not receive unanimous council support |
| 2014 | Newport Anacapa Associates LLC purchases car wash site for $11.8M; car wash continues operating during entitlement process |
| 2014-2016 | 125-room hotel proposal advanced; rejected by Newport Beach voters via General Plan Amendment referendum |
| 2015-2017 | 49-unit, six-story condominium concept proposed; later revised downward |
| November 2020 | EIR Notice of Preparation filed for revised 28-unit, four-story condominium plan (approx. 53 ft, rooftop pool, 2-level underground parking); planner Liz Westmoreland |
| 2021-2025 | Newport Center rezoned under PC-56 framework; height limits raised first to 85 ft and later higher; 28-unit plan becomes economically obsolete |
| June 16, 2026 | Sale closes and records; Irvine Company pays $32,500,000 for the 1.26-acre parcel |
| May 2026 | Newport Beach Car Wash officially closes after more than 51 years; site fenced off |
| June 22, 2026 | Irvine Company purchase reported by the Orange County Business Journal; Block 100 integration confirmed |
The Entitlement Treadmill
The problem was not the 28-unit project itself. It was that the planning environment shifted dramatically between the time Newport Anacapa filed its EIR and the time that document was making its way through the process.
When the condo plan was first moving through city review, the height limit at that location was capped at 55 feet. Newport Beach subsequently adopted the PC-56 Planned Community framework for Newport Center, a set of zoning changes designed to accommodate the city's state-mandated housing obligation. The Planning Commission raised the height limit to 85 feet. Additional adjustments followed.
"We were going to have to start all over to re-entitle our site," Ridgeway told the Business Journal. Starting over meant new environmental review, new General Plan and Zone Code amendments, new public hearings, and a timeline measured in additional years.
Ridgeway understood that the zoning changes had actually increased the value of the site. A parcel that could support 28 condos at 55 feet could support a considerably larger project at 85-plus feet. But capturing that value as a small independent operator navigating Newport Beach's entitlement process was a different problem entirely.
"There was so much activity going on and there was value created with the new height," he said. "Based upon time and place more than anything, we were in a position where it was beneficial for our business plan to go ahead and sell it."
Newport Anacapa had owned the site for twelve years. Three development concepts had advanced and stalled. The rational move was to sell to the one entity in Newport Center that did not have an entitlement problem.
The Irvine Company's Strategic Acquisition
The sale recorded on June 16, 2026. County records confirm the Irvine Company paid $32,500,000 for the 1.26-acre parcel. The price was not disclosed in press coverage at the time, including the Orange County Business Journal's June 22 report. The $32.5 million figure represents nearly three times the $11.8 million Newport Anacapa Associates paid in 2014, a return that reflects both the 12-year hold and the value created by Newport Center's rezoning under the PC-56 framework.
At roughly $25.8 million per acre, the Irvine Company paid a Newport Center land value consistent with the premium the area commands. For context, the Irvine Company's 2025 acquisition of 100 Newport Center Drive (the former Newport Sports Museum property) for $36.5 million established what was reported as the highest per-square-foot office sale price in Orange County history for buildings over 15,000 square feet. The car wash parcel, at $32.5 million for 1.26 acres of commercially zoned Newport Center land, belongs in the same tier.
What the Irvine Company gains is a clean addition to its Block 100 land position. Block 100 is the development name for the company's plan to convert the 142,000-square-foot Gateway Plaza office campus at 110 Newport Center Drive into approximately 600 apartments. The project calls for a five-story podium structure with two levels of underground parking. Architect MVE + Partners is leading the design.
The car wash parcel at 150 Newport Center Drive West sits directly adjacent to that campus, separated by Anacapa Drive. Adding 1.26 acres to the Block 100 footprint could increase the total unit count beyond the 600 currently approved. The Irvine Company has stated only that it plans to "seamlessly integrate" the car wash site into the larger development. Revised plans have not been publicly released.
This kind of parcel consolidation is standard operating procedure for the Irvine Company. The firm built Newport Center, owns Fashion Island, developed the Villas Fashion Island apartment complex, and controls most of the office campus acreage now being converted to residential use. Picking up a 1.26-acre gap site between its projects eliminates a planning seam and gives the design team a larger, more coherent footprint to work with.
Where This Fits in the Newport Center Story
Newport Beach carries a state housing obligation of 4,845 units under California's 2021-2029 Regional Housing Needs Assessment. Newport Center is expected to absorb roughly 2,439 of those units. The Irvine Company holds vested rights under the PC-56 framework to build up to 1,500 units in Newport Center with administrative approval rather than full public hearings.
That 1,500-unit allocation is being deployed across multiple projects. Villas Fashion Island Phase 2 accounts for 184 units now under construction, with completion expected in early 2028. Block 100 accounts for up to 600 units at 110 Newport Center Drive. Once the car wash parcel is incorporated, the combined Block 100 footprint may support additional units beyond the current approval, though revised entitlements would be required.
The 28-unit condominium plan that Newport Anacapa pursued through multiple rounds of city review is now permanently superseded. The site will be apartments, not for-sale condominiums. The developer will be the Irvine Company, not Newport Anacapa. And the scale of the project it joins is roughly 25 times larger than what the former owners were trying to build.
That is not a verdict on Newport Anacapa's judgment. Ridgeway saw the mixed-use future of Newport Center in 2006 when the city council could not reach consensus on it. He was right about the direction. He simply could not move fast enough through the entitlement process to capture the value he had identified before the environment shifted again.
Property Tax and Financial Impact
Under Proposition 13, California property is taxed at 1 percent of assessed value at time of purchase, with annual increases capped at 2 percent. The Irvine Company's $32,500,000 acquisition of the car wash site, recorded June 16, 2026, resets the assessed value to that purchase price. At 1 percent, the parcel now generates approximately $325,000 per year in total property taxes. Newport Beach retains roughly 16 percent of property tax revenue, putting the city's annual share from the land itself at approximately $52,000 per year.
The more significant tax impact comes when Block 100 is built and leased. If the combined project delivers 650 or more apartment units at Newport Center market rents, the assessed value of the finished complex at completion could approach or exceed $600 million. At 1 percent base tax and accounting for Newport Beach's approximately 16 percent share of property tax revenue, the Block 100 project as a whole, including the former car wash parcel, could generate $900,000 or more per year in property tax revenue for the city once fully operational.
Because the Irvine Company is expected to retain Block 100 as a rental portfolio rather than sell individual units, Proposition 13's reassessment rules mean the full complex will be assessed at the time of the eventual portfolio transaction. In a sale, the reset to market value would produce a substantially larger tax base.
The car wash site itself contributed modest assessed value to Newport Beach's tax rolls. Its potential contribution as part of a 600-plus-unit luxury apartment complex is materially larger.
Affordable Housing and AMI
The car wash parcel carried no independent affordable housing obligation under Newport Anacapa's ownership. The site was never entitled for residential use, and the 28-unit condo plan never reached final approval. Once integrated into Block 100 under the Irvine Company's PC-56 framework, affordable housing requirements for this parcel will be governed by the overall Block 100 entitlement.
Newport Center's PC-56 Planned Community framework requires the Irvine Company to deliver 105 income-restricted units across all Newport Center residential projects through 2029. How those units are distributed across Block 100, Villas Fashion Island Phase 2, and any future projects in the PC-56 allocation has not been publicly detailed. The addition of the car wash site to Block 100's footprint is unlikely to significantly alter that total obligation, though it may affect how and where affordable units are sited within the combined project.
Any income-restricted units within the finished Block 100 complex will be priced according to Orange County Area Median Income, not Newport Beach city-level figures or statewide income benchmarks. Orange County's 2025 AMI for a family of four was $169,200. A two-bedroom unit at 50 percent AMI (Very Low Income) is capped at approximately $1,903 per month. At 60 percent AMI the cap is approximately $2,284 per month.
The vast majority of Block 100 units, including those on the former car wash site, will be market-rate apartments priced at multiples of those thresholds.
Fifty-One Years, Twelve Years, One Sale
The Newport Beach Car Wash lasted more than half a century because full-service car washes, once established in affluent communities, tend to hold onto loyal customer bases long after the underlying economics would have justified closing. The labor-intensive model survived long past the era that created it.
When Newport Anacapa purchased the site in 2014, the intent was to redevelop it. Twelve years, three development concepts, one voter rejection, two rounds of environmental review, and multiple cycles of zoning overhaul later, the Irvine Company is the one that will build on it.
"It was sad to let it go," Ridgeway said of the closure. He added that he understood longtime customers would feel the same way.
But he also said: "I'm happy to certainly move on."
That is probably the right frame for this parcel's history. The car wash was a successful business for a long time. The development effort was a genuine attempt by a politically connected, market-aware operator to participate in Newport Center's evolution. And the Irvine Company acquisition is not a story of failure. It is a story of Newport Center pulling everything toward a common gravitational center, one adjacent parcel at a time, as the city's housing transformation accelerates into the decade ahead.
