Face Lift by the Bay : Balboa Bay Club, Once Haven for Top Stars, Hopes to Sparkle Anew After $30-Million Renovation

For decades, the Balboa Bay Club was the place to be, an elite fun spot where the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo and Richard Nixon sought sunny refuge. Today, the 45-year-old yacht club retains a certain aura. But the stargazing isn’t what it used to be. Club officials say business has been down in recent years and that the club is in need of renovations.

After years of wrangling with the city, scaled-back plans to remodel the club into a garden oasis are finally inching forward.

And there is talk, once the remodeling is complete in a few years, of opening up portions of the member-only Balboa Bay Club for the first time, allowing the public to dine in some restaurants and stay in the club’s new hotel rooms.

“In the old days, it was filled with movie stars. John Wayne was on the board of governors, and very well-known industrialists looked at the bay club as a getaway place,” club owner Beverly Ray said. “What we want to preserve is the feeling about this place and the memories and the lifestyle. It is very simple, where people come to lay back.”

Several years ago, just before the recession took hold of Southern California, club officials had proposed a lavish renovation. But residents protested, complaining that the additions would block views and bring more traffic and noise to their neighborhood on the bluffs overlooking Newport Bay. The City Council eventually rejected those plans.

Club officials returned to the council this year with a scaled-back, $30-million renovation plan that won quick approval last month, as well as praise from residents who opposed it the first time around.

The new proposal is still ambitious. It calls for the demolition and rebuilding of much of the aging club’s facilities.

But supporters said the new plan also is pragmatic--designed to coexist with the surrounding community and the economic realities of the 1990s.

“Things have changed dramatically in the past (four) years,” said club president Dave Wooten, noting that the 1990 plan did not anticipate the statewide recession. “I would not want to be sitting here with 300 hotel rooms to fill.”

The expansion plan would significantly alter the appearance of the club by adding gardens, palm trees, new buildings, patios and a breezy bay-front promenade.

The club would increase from about 155,000 square feet to about 189,000 square feet. New athletic facilities, a public restaurant, coffee shop, two bars and a ballroom would be built along with four conference rooms.

Ray said she envisions the new club as “buildings set into a garden by the bay.” The architecture will be “very simple, classical lines. Nothing extreme. Something that will look good and elegant forever,” she said.

Plans also call for construction of glass-covered walkways, expansive ocean-side patios, a grand central courtyard and a swimming pool perched alongside the bay.

In recent years, as new hotels and condo complexes have sprung up nearby, the Balboa Bay Club has found itself scrambling to fill its 144 terrace apartments, which overlook the bay, and “battleship row,” a line of boat slips that are home to some of California’s largest yachts.

“There was a time when (the apartments) were always full and there was a waiting list to get in,” Ray said. “We have a lot more competition these days.”

Ray and other club leaders are betting that the new project will give the club a contemporary look while maintaining the mystique the hideaway has enjoyed since its heyday.

Opened in 1948 amid the mud flats of a then-deserted Coast Highway, the Balboa Bay Club had always been synonymous with fame, wealth and power.

Its membership rosters and guest lists have included William Holden, Lauren Bacall and Joey Bishop. They and dozens of other Hollywood stars regularly made the hourlong trek from Beverly Hills south to Newport Beach, where many docked yachts.

New York Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle, astronaut Chuck Yeager and crooner Frank Sinatra also were once regular visitors.

The club’s photo archives are filled with pictures of famous figures enjoying the sunny outdoor patios and bars, including Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Following his resignation, Richard Nixon briefly lived on the compound before taking up residence in San Clemente.

Though fewer celebrities rub elbows at the club today, the landmark retains a certain mystique. In recent years, the Balboa Bay Club was the setting for Joseph Wambaugh’s novel, “The Golden Orange.”

Construction work on the club’s make-over is not expected to begin for at least three years. The proposal still must pass muster with the California Coastal Commission and the club also must negotiate a new lease with the city, which owns the land.

But the new scaled-back project has received support from nearby residents of the Cliff Haven and Newport Heights areas who were among the most vocal critics of the 1990 plan. Residents said the new project blocks fewer views and does a better job of addressing traffic and noise concerns.

John Sturgess, president of the Cliff Haven Homeowners Assn., said the club solicited comments from neighbors and kept them updated on the status of the project. Sturgess and other residents said they plan to keep meeting with club officials through the design and construction process.

“They really did a good job helping us understand the plan,” Sturgess said. “We worked together to make it compatible with the community.”

“It’s a very good relationship,” he said.