Beach Boy’s Club Kokomo to Debut in Orange in June

Mike Love’s first Caribbean-themed Club Kokomo is sailing ahead for a June debut in Orange, and larger versions of the nightclub-restaurant are likely to open in Nevada and Florida in 1999, a real estate agent for the Beach Boys singer says.

Backed by private investors, Love envisions dozens of clubs worldwide with a House of Blues-meets-thatched cabana look. The Orange club, at the Stadium Promenade retail/entertainment project, will be 15,000 square feet, with concert seating for 250.

Most Club Kokomos will be that size, said Love’s site-seeker, Wally Limburg of CB Commercial Real Estate Group in Newport Beach. But in top tourist cities like Orlando, Fla., Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo, the plan is for 25,000-square-foot clubs seating 750 to 1,000 concert-goers.

Limburg, who is winnowing locations in Las Vegas and Orlando, said he expects a Club Kokomo to open in at least one of those cities in 1999. Clubs in Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia, are not far behind, he said.

Love is following the path of “eater-tainment” promoters such as Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis (Planet Hollywood), Steven Spielberg (Dive!) and Dan Aykroyd (House of Blues).

The Stadium Promenade in Orange, where Love’s first club will open, is also a variation on an increasingly common theme: entertainment- and food-oriented outdoor malls like the one at the Irvine Spectrum and CityWalk in Universal City.

A 25-screen movie complex just opened to anchor the project, not far from Disneyland and Anaheim’s convention center and stadiums. That combination draw for tourists and locals is the kind of mix Club Kokomo is looking for as it scouts locations, Limburg said.

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E. Scott Reckard covers real estate for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at scott.reckard@latimes.com