DANA POINT : Official Still Expects Qintex to Build Park

A park district official says he remains confident an Australian development company will build a $5-million “European-style, world-class” public park in Dana Point’s Monarch Beach area, despite the bankruptcy last week of one arm of the company.

“We’re still meeting with Qintex (the Australian developer), and we’re taking them at their word that the plans for the park will be completed,” said David A. Lewis, administrator of the Capistrano Bay Park and Recreation District.

Qintex has announced plans to build a hotel and resort community on about 300 acres. City officials expressed concern last week when one arm of Qintex, which invests in entertainment industries, announced it was filing for bankruptcy.

In addition to the hotel, which city officials estimate would bring up to $6 million a year in taxes, Dana Point has looked to Qintex to develop 20 acres of parkland facing Coast Highway at Niguel Road. The land, called Sea Terrace, is next to the site for Qintex’s proposed hotel.

The undeveloped parkland formerly was administered by the Laguna Niguel Community Services District, but when Dana Point became a city this year, the Monarch Beach area parks came under the jurisdiction of the Park and Recreation District.

That district has been negotiating for several years with potential developers of the land, which is near the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and has a spectacular view of the ocean.

Qintex has verbally agreed to spend about $5 million in development of the Sea Terrace Park land, Lewis said.