NEWPORT BEACH : Last Corona del Mar Inn to Be Replaced

The “No Vacancy” sign is almost always lit at the Kirkwood Motel, Corona del Mar’s last remaining inn.

With a pool in the middle, nine rooms and 10 efficiency apartments, this blue landmark on the southern edge of town has for decades been home for long-term visitors, displaced apartment renters and for one permanent resident.

Next year, it will be razed for luxury condominiums.

The Coastal Commission last week approved plans for construction of the 18-unit Villa del Este at 4030 E. Coast Highway. That approval was the final step in a series of hearings at which there was no opposition.

Neighbors of the Kirkwood were satisfied with the plan, but the renters who have stayed there are sorry to see it go.

“Old folks come year after year from places like Vancouver and Michigan to escape the cold,” said Richard Poepsel, motel manager for nine years and nephew of the current owner. “I had one woman who has been coming here for 30 years.”

Even the help comes back. Poepsel said he has had the same maids for years, including a mother, her daughter, her cousins and her friends.

Robert Knowlton, who now lives on a boat in Newport Beach, said he once stayed there while he was between rentals.

“I’m sorry to see it torn down,” he said. “Not too many people can afford to live here (Corona del Mar) or stay here anymore.

And Jeff Nowac, a Corona del Mar resident who lodges his family at the Kirkwood when they visit from Chicago, said: “I guess they’ll have to go to those big expensive hotels up in Fashion Island now. This is what we call progress.”

Edward Friedl of New York, whose family has owned the motel since 1957, said he was approached by the future owners about a year ago. Now that their project is approved, he plans to transfer ownership in April and retire, he said.

“The motel is old,” Friedl said. “It should be modernized, but it’s a small operation, and I just wouldn’t get my money back.”

That’s what happened to the six or seven motels that used to be in Corona del Mar, according to William Hendricks, director of the Sherman Library.

“There was a whole string of motels in 1965,” he said. “They’ve all turned into condos, apartments or businesses. There’s more money to be made in other ways.”

Built about 35 years ago, the 19 Kirkwood units rent to “people off the street” for about $875 a month, but old-timers pay “peanuts,” Poepsel said.

“I just didn’t have the heart to raise it,” he said. “How can you do that to an 87-year-old woman?”

The owners-to-be, Buck Gully Associates and general partner Corona del Mar Condo Corp., both of Corona del Mar, worked with neighbors of the motel for six months.

Kent Hawkins, an executive of the development firms, said that neighbors’ concerns, such as not blocking views, were taken into consideration. “There was not a single ‘no’ vote with the positive input; we made it a neighborhood project.”

Hawkins said the new condominiums will range in price from $475,000 to $700,000 each. The project will have subterranean parking, two elevators and a courtyard in the middle with water fountains.

“It’s an Italian village kind of feeling,” he said.