By Eric Engelbert
A Golf Course View That Became a $216 Million Deal
Newport Beach is in the middle of the most significant residential construction wave in its history. Multiple high-rise towers are either approved or under construction in Newport Center simultaneously, a moment that will permanently reshape the skyline of one of California's wealthiest coastal cities. This is the second in a series of individual project profiles covering each development in the pipeline.
This one starts on a golf course.
In the middle of 2020, Kevin Martin and Todd Pickup of Eagle Four Partners were playing a round at Newport Beach Country Club. From somewhere on the front nine, they looked up at the hotel across Newport Center Drive: the 532-room Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa, owned by Host Hotels and Resorts. The hotel was sitting largely empty during the pandemic. Host had planned a $30 million renovation that no longer made sense. An unsolicited offer was made. It was accepted.
That moment on the golf course set in motion a sequence of events that will deliver a 22-story Ritz-Carlton branded residential tower to Newport Center, a private non-profit affordable housing fund for Newport Beach, and one of the most unusual development stories in Orange County real estate history.
From Marriott to VEA to Ritz: The Full Property History
The property at 900 Newport Center Drive has served Newport Beach as a major full-service hotel for decades. As the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa, it operated 532 rooms and was long considered the anchor hospitality property of Newport Center, convenient to Fashion Island and the surrounding office and retail complex.
Host Hotels and Resorts, the publicly traded REIT that owned the property, had proposed a roughly $30 million renovation before the pandemic disrupted the hospitality industry. When Eagle Four Partners and Lyon Living made their unsolicited offer in mid-2020, Host accepted. The transaction closed in November 2020 at $216 million, or approximately $406,000 per room, in an off-market deal.
The new owners invested substantially more than Host's planned renovation budget, going well beyond a refresh to reinvent the property entirely. In 2022, the hotel reopened as VEA Newport Beach, a Marriott Resort and Spa. VEA is not an official Marriott brand but one that Eagle Four created with Marriott's full approval. The entire campus, including the future residential tower, remains under the Marriott umbrella and is managed by Debbie Snavely, the longtime general manager of the property and a former Newport Beach Citizen of the Year.
The VEA name and identity were deliberately designed to give the property a more independent, resort-like character. It was also designed from the beginning with the expectation that the Ritz-Carlton Residences would eventually be built alongside it, completing an integrated luxury campus.
A three-story hotel tower on the property, located near self-parking, will be demolished to create the footprint for the 22-story residential building. The Marriott's original 532-room count will be reduced as a result of both the VEA renovation and the Ritz residential conversion.
The Project: 22 Stories, Newport Center's First Branded Residences
The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Newport Beach will rise approximately 295 to 300 feet on the VEA campus at 900 Newport Center Drive. The 22-story tower will be entirely residential, with no hotel rooms or short-term rental units. It will stand as a separate building from the VEA hotel but connected as one integrated luxury campus.
The project was approved for up to 159 residential units. Current design work by architect MVE Partners reflects approximately 109 units, suggesting the final program may deliver fewer but larger residences than the original maximum. Residential units will be located between the second and 22nd floors, with larger homes and penthouse-level residences at the upper floors.
Amenities will include resort-style pool and spa with lounge seating, a dedicated gym and fitness facility, locker rooms, spa treatment rooms, meeting rooms, legendary Ritz-Carlton concierge services operating separately from VEA staff, a billiards and library room, and private food and beverage service for residents. Outdoor amenities include a private garden, walking paths, and a dog relief area. A new five-level, 408-space subterranean parking structure will be constructed beneath the residential building.
Views from upper floors will encompass Fashion Island, the Newport Beach Country Club golf course directly across the street, Newport Harbor, and the Pacific Ocean. On clear days the Catalina Island silhouette will be visible from the higher floors.
Address: 900 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach
Tower: 22 stories / approximately 295 to 300 feet
Units: up to 159 approved; current design approximately 109
Type: Ritz-Carlton branded luxury condominiums
Parking: 5-level subterranean, 408 spaces
Affordable housing: none (city fee structure applies)
Campus partner: VEA Newport Beach, a Marriott Resort and Spa
Eagle Four Partners and Lyon Living
Eagle Four Partners is a Newport Beach-based real estate investment and development firm founded by Kevin Martin and Todd Pickup. The firm focuses on hospitality and mixed-use assets in Southern California. Kory Kramer has been active in the development and community relations side of the Newport Beach project. The name "Eagle Four" is widely associated with the Newport Beach golf community that gave the firm its start-of-deal backstory.
Lyon Living is an Irvine-based residential developer with a long track record across Orange County and Southern California. The firm is led by Peter Zak. Lyon Living has been active in both market-rate luxury residential and mixed-use development, making it a natural partner for Eagle Four on a project that blends hotel and branded residential components.
Together, the two firms brought a distinctly local Orange County perspective to what could have been a transaction handled by an out-of-state institutional buyer. Their willingness to invest significantly beyond Host's planned renovation budget, and to pursue a creative residential entitlement alongside the hotel renovation, is what produced the Ritz-Carlton Residences project.
The architectural firm is MVE Partners, a Newport Beach-based practice with a long portfolio of high-rise residential and mixed-use projects in Orange County and beyond. MVE's design for the Residences draws from the California Post Modernism tradition that William Pereira established when he designed Fashion Island in the 1960s. The building incorporates nautical-inspired forms and yacht-influenced detailing, with a heavy emphasis on indoor/outdoor spaces suited to the Southern California climate. Structural engineering is by Glotman Simpson.
Council Policy K-4: The Law That Made This Possible
The Ritz-Carlton Residences would not exist without Council Policy K-4, a Newport Beach city policy adopted in March 2021 that created a legal pathway for hotel-to-residential conversions. Before K-4, converting hotel rooms to residential condominiums in Newport Beach would have required a general plan amendment or similar entitlement action. K-4 streamlined that process under specific conditions.
The policy was adopted precisely because Newport Beach needed creative approaches to its state-mandated housing production requirements. Under California's Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), Newport Beach was assigned a target of 4,845 new units for the 2021-2029 planning cycle. Hotel-to-residential conversion offered a way to add residential units without consuming developable land that might otherwise be needed for other uses.
The Ritz-Carlton Residences project was one of the first and most prominent applications of K-4. The Newport Beach Planning Commission approved the project in May 2022, with Councilwoman Joy Brenner playing a key role in building support. The project proceeded through approvals smoothly, in part because the hotel-to-residential conversion framework gave the Planning Commission a clear policy basis for approval.
Under the K-4 structure, the developers pay the city $100,000 per residential unit, of which $65,000 per unit flows to a private, non-profit affordable housing trust fund established as part of the deal. At the approved maximum of 159 units, total city payments would reach $15.9 million, with $10.35 million directed to affordable housing. At 109 units, the figures would be $10.9 million total and $7.09 million to the affordable housing fund.
Why SPON Said Yes
SPON, which stands for Still Protecting Our Newport, is Newport Beach's most active residents advocacy group and one that has historically opposed large-scale development in the city. The group's endorsement of the Ritz-Carlton Residences project was considered significant precisely because it was unexpected.
SPON's leaders at the time of the approval, Jean Watt, Charles Klobe, and Nancy Scarbrough, worked directly with Eagle Four's Kory Kramer and Lyon Living's Peter Zak to structure a deal that addressed the affordable housing dimension in a meaningful way. The creation of the private, non-profit housing trust fund was the key concession that brought SPON to yes.
The trust fund model offered Newport Beach something that a standard in-lieu fee payment does not: a dedicated, locally controlled pool of capital specifically targeting affordable housing. Rather than payments disappearing into the general fund, the structure was designed to keep affordable housing funding separate and focused.
Gary Sherwin, then President and CEO of Visit Newport Beach, described the deal at the time as demonstrating "that even in this polarized era, good things can still get done." The combination of a world-class hospitality brand, local developers, a rare SPON endorsement, and a creative affordable housing structure made the Ritz-Carlton Residences project one of the more closely watched approvals in Newport Beach's recent planning history.
What Will the Residences Cost?
No pricing has been publicly released. Eagle Four Partners and Lyon Living have not opened a sales program as of July 2026. Given that the project appears to still be in the pre-construction or early construction phase, a formal sales launch is likely at least 12 to 18 months away.
What the Ritz-Carlton brand commands in comparable markets gives a useful pricing framework. Ritz-Carlton Residences in other major US markets, including Miami, Los Angeles, and Honolulu, have sold at ranges from approximately $3 million for smaller residences to $15 million or more for larger or penthouse-level units. Newport Beach pricing is expected to be competitive with those markets, given the city's overall luxury market positioning and the specific combination of Fashion Island proximity, Newport Harbor views, and a brand that carries some of the highest recognition in hospitality globally.
If the final unit count is approximately 109 (as the current MVE Partners design reflects), average unit sizes would be larger than originally planned, which would push average pricing higher. At a projected range of $3 million to $15 million per unit across 109 residences, the total project sellout could reach $500 million to $750 million or more.
These are market-based estimates only. The developers have not released floor plans, unit mix, or pricing guidance.
Tax Impact on Newport Beach
The 2020 acquisition of the property for $216 million triggered a Proposition 13 reassessment at that purchase price. The hotel is currently generating property tax based on its $216 million acquisition value, contributing meaningfully to the city's tax base already. Newport Beach receives roughly 16 to 17 cents of each property tax dollar, so the hotel's annual contribution to the city is in the range of $370,000 to $400,000 per year from the property tax alone, before lodging tax (TOT) is considered.
When the residential tower is completed and units are sold, each condominium will be reassessed at its sale price, layering new residential property tax on top of the existing hotel assessment.
At an estimated average sale price of $6 million per unit across 109 condominiums:
- New residential assessed value: approximately $654 million
- Annual residential property tax at 1.1%: approximately $7.2 million
- Newport Beach's share: approximately $1.2 million per year in recurring city revenue from the residential component alone
Combined with the hotel's existing property tax contribution, transient occupancy tax (TOT) revenue from the VEA, and the one-time city payment of up to $15.9 million under the K-4 fee structure, the full VEA campus represents one of the more complex and multi-layered fiscal contributions of any single property in Newport Beach.
Development fees and building permit fees for a tower of this scale would add additional one-time revenue to the city at the time of construction. No formal fiscal impact analysis for the residential component has been publicly released.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where will the Ritz-Carlton Residences be located?
The tower will be built on the campus of the VEA Newport Beach at 900 Newport Center Drive. A three-story hotel tower on the property near self-parking will be demolished to create the footprint for the new 22-story residential building.
Who are the developers?
Eagle Four Partners, led by Kevin Martin and Todd Pickup, and Lyon Living, led by Peter Zak, are the co-developers. Both firms are based in Orange County. They jointly acquired the Newport Beach Marriott from Host Hotels and Resorts in November 2020 for $216 million.
How many units will there be and what will they cost?
The project was approved for up to 159 units. Architect MVE Partners' current portfolio shows approximately 109 units, suggesting a revised and likely more spacious final unit mix. No pricing has been announced. Based on comparable Ritz-Carlton Residences in other markets, pricing is expected to range from roughly $3 million to $15 million or more per unit.
Why did SPON support this project?
SPON endorsed the project because it includes a private, non-profit affordable housing trust fund funded by $65,000 per residential unit from the developers. SPON leaders Jean Watt, Charles Klobe, and Nancy Scarbrough worked directly with the development team to structure the affordable housing commitment before lending their support.
What is the current construction status?
The Newport Beach Planning Commission approved the project in May 2022. As of mid-2026, the project was in the pre-construction or early construction phase. The original estimated completion of 2025 has been pushed back. A realistic completion window, depending on when construction is in full swing, is 2027 to 2028.
Watching the Newport Beach Market?
The Ritz-Carlton Residences are one of more than a dozen major residential projects reshaping Newport Center and the broader Newport Beach real estate market over the next several years. If you want to understand how these new developments affect pricing and inventory in the surrounding market, or if you are considering a purchase in Newport Beach now, I can help.
