Newport planners OK another expansion for high-end rental car site

Enterprise Rent-a-Car will expand its airport-area facilities in Newport Beach, picking up more storage space and a place to detail its most high-end rides.

The Newport Beach Planning Commission approved a proposal last week to allow Enterprise, which has facilities immediately adjacent to John Wayne Airport at 4500 Campus Drive and 4361 Birch St., to demolish nearby older office buildings to significantly expand its vehicle storage lots and renovate an existing building to create a service center, increase its car wash areas and add offices and parts storage.

The project will take down more than 38,000 square feet of office buildings spread out over three neighboring properties on Campus and Birch.

Enterprise last expanded in 2015 when it grew from the Birch site to Campus, demolishing another 70,000 square feet of office space to add a 5,000 square-foot building, a vehicle display, a car wash and fuel pumps. After that expansion, it had 57 employee and customer parking spots and room for 640 rental cars.

After the next expansion, the complex will have close to 100 customer and employee parking spaces and room to store 810 vehicles.

Enterprise says the project will allow it to eliminate the use of several offsite storage lots. The project will also allow the company to detail its exotic sports cars onsite.

According to Enterprise’s website, the Newport airport-area site is one of 16 in California — and the only in Orange County — where drivers can rent an exotic car.

The exotics line includes Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Aston Martins and Corvettes, along with BMW, Mercedes and Tesla models.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD