Firm to Fete 100 Years With Ground Breaking

Parties combining the new and the old are always pleasant affairs and in the construction industry, what better combination than the ground breaking for a major building and the 100th birthday of the building firm?

The party will be held Monday, beginning at 11 a.m., to celebrate the ground breaking for the Niguel Shores Professional Building at 33971 Selva Road in Niguel Shores, a seaside community south of Laguna Beach.

The site is on a bluff where Selva Road meets Coast Highway, and the developer said the building’s overlook of the coast and the ocean can never be blocked by later construction. It is also about a quarter of a mile south of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where the party will adjourn for lunch after the ground breaking.

The $3.5-million, 20,000-square-foot building is a joint venture of Niguel Shores Professional Building Ltd. and the Newport-beach based Young Corp. Young is also the builder. The Young firm was formed in Memphis, Tenn., in 1885 by Frederick Bethel Young, carried on by his son, Frederick de Medici Young, and is now operated by David Young, the founder’s grandson and the firm’s chief executive officer, and Robin Young, great-grandson and president.

The ground breaking will feature a cake decorated with a representation of the new building and 100 candles. Afterward, the candles, several historic and recent photos and other materials will be encased in a time capsule and buried at the site, to be opened in 25 years.

Architect of the building is Kurt Donat Associates, Newport Beach, who designed it in a Mediterranean style compatible with the nearby Ritz-Carlton. Casement windows on all sides will open to the ocean breezes and several balconies will overlook the Pacific. The elevator-served underground garage will have 53 spaces and there will be surface parking for 43 cars.

Engineers, both also of Newport Beach, are Jerry Tucker & Associates Inc., structural, and Favreau Engineers, civil. The Newport Beach land planning and landscape architecture firm of Stephen J. Malefyt has designed the grounds. The lender is Sumitomo Bank and the leasing agent is Norris Beggs & Simpson of Newport Beach.

Construction will begin immediately and is scheduled to take about 10 months.