City is in talks to buy hall site

Newport Beach officials are in talks to buy a seven-acre parcel on East Coast Highway that could become home to a new city hall.

The property at 1602 E. Coast Highway in Newport Center is now occupied by the Balboa Bay Club’s tennis club, but the club’s lease is set to expire soon, said Newport Beach City Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who chairs the council’s building committee.

“It is a piece that we’re looking at for a possible city hall site,” Councilman Ed Selich said. “We’re appraising the property, and we’ve had discussions with the property owners, and some are interested in selling and some are less interested in selling, so we’re trying to find out what its value is before we move in any direction on it.”

The council has been considering city hall locations since 2005, when some residents resisted rebuilding the facility at the existing Balboa Peninsula site and wanted to explore other spots.

Most council members and residents ultimately fell into two camps: keeping the existing site or finding one in Newport Center.

City officials tried to buy a parcel in Corporate Plaza West from the Irvine Co. but were rebuffed in June.

With 26 tennis courts on it and little else, the East Coast Highway parcel “doesn’t have any of the problems of any site that we’ve worked on” so far, Ridgeway said.

Ridgeway wouldn’t comment on an estimated value of the property or whether the city would use eminent domain if the owners don’t agree to sell. He expected the appraisal to be done by the end of November.