Beauchamp Enterprises Favored : Newport Beach Firm Gets Marina Option Extension

Despite some protest, the Ventura Port District has extended a lease option with Orange County-based Beauchamp Enterprises to operate most of Ventura Harbor’s shopping village.

The extension of the 50-year option, which would cost Beauchamp $6.5 million to $8 million, gives Beauchamp until June to come up with financing to operate Harbor Village.

Beauchamp Enterprises, headed by Orange County credit dentist Dr. Robert F. Beauchamp and based in Newport Beach, owns two marinas in Ventura Harbor.

Ventura Port District officials have greeted Beauchamp’s proposal warmly, saying it would bring stability to the long-beleaguered cluster of 100 shops, restaurants and harbor-related businesses while bringing at least $350,000 in needed wharf improvements.

Ocean Services Inc., which developed and operated Harbor Village, went bankrupt in 1986, defaulting on $6.5 million in bonds used to build the shopping village and leaving behind $16.3 million in debts.

The lease extension was opposed by CIB Development, a Huntington Beach firm that bought the majority of the outstanding harbor bonds last year and has twice tried to claim title to Harbor Village.

Beauchamp’s two marinas at Ventura Harbor hold 560 slips. The firm also operates a 985-slip marina at Dana Point Harbor and a 611-slip marina in San Diego.

Beauchamp, the firm’s 74-year-old founder, began building an empire in 1939 by aggressively advertising dental care on credit to lower-income and minority communities. He has parlayed those earnings into real estate and other businesses said to total $500 million in assets.