Tokyo Firm Scales Back Proposal for Dana Point Hotel : Development: Nippon Shinpan now plans a single hotel of 400 rooms, rather than two facilities. Homes, condos and a park are also sought on a parcel in Dana Point’s Monarch Bay.

The Japanese development company that bought a 232-acre parcel in Monarch Bay last year is expected to unveil today a scaled-back version of a plan to build on one of the last undeveloped seaside stretches in Southern California.

A senior executive from Nippon Shinpan Co. Ltd. said a major reason for toning down the company’s original plan was to get quick approval from the Dana Point City Council and the city’s Planning Commission, which oversee developments in Monarch Bay, a district of the city.

Instead of building two hotels--one with 300 rooms, another with 100--company officials seek one 400-room, first-class hotel, plus housing and other developments, said Tsuyoshi Kawazoe, director and general manager of Nippon Shinpan’s subsidiary in Los Angeles.

The previous owners of the property--after several years of negotiating with the county, the city and the state Coastal Commission--won permission in the mid-1980s to build more than 1,100 hotel rooms on the parcel across Coast Highway from Orange County’s Salt Creek Beach Park. Those plans included more than 800 rooms in a single, behemoth hotel that would look like Hearst Castle in San Simeon.

Then Qintex, an Australian company, bought the property in 1989, but it went broke before it could win approval to build one 800-room hotel.

Nippon Shinpan wants to cut Qintex’s hotel plans in half to make the development--which will cost $300 million to $500 million--easier to manage.

“We want this proposal to be approved as quickly as possible,” Kawazoe said Tuesday. “That’s why we are presenting a project that we think will be accepted by the City Council.”

But Tokyo-based Nippon Shinpan, which owns Japan’s largest credit card company, may also have a tough battle ahead because the new plan would provide less money for city coffers than previous proposals would have.

Nippon Shinpan also proposes to build a beach house for hotel guests and the public; construct 238 single-family homes and duplexes; expand an existing golf course, the Links at Monarch Beach, adding a clubhouse; and build a 21-acre, $5.4-million public park, to be called Sea Terrace Community Park, at Coast Highway and Niguel Road, which is required under the original development plan.

Mike Sato, a general manager at Nippon Shinpan’s Tokyo office, said his company is discussing management with several hotel operators, including Marriott and Sheraton.

Nippon Shinpan has also had extensive talks with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., which operates its 393-room luxury facility across Coast Highway from the proposed Sea Terrace Community Park.

Henry Schielein, the Ritz-Carlton’s vice president and general manager in Dana Point, said talks have centered on a possible venture between Nippon Shinpan and Ritz-Carlton to operate the proposed Monarch Bay hotel jointly.

Nippon Shinpan, which developed condominiums in Japan for at least 30 years, has never managed a hotel.

“To my knowledge, there’s nothing affirmative at this stage,” said Schielein, who said discussions started late last year.