2-Acre Parcel’s Price as Breathtaking as the View
After four generations of ownership, the reclusive Irvine family is selling one of the largest remaining parcels on Southern California’s coast: a pristine, two-acre bluff-top site in Laguna Beach.
The asking price for this oceanfront gem: an apparently unprecedented $40 million.
If sold at or near that amount--and it is a big if in this shaky economy--the deal would set a record for residential land in Southern California, possibly anywhere in the country, brokers say.
At $459 a square foot, the price for the parcel in the gated community of Irvine Cove is about four times higher than that of a prime spot in Malibu, seven times the cost of a comparable lot in Beverly Hills and more than 100 times the price of the choicest land in the Inland Empire.
Even in the exclusive Hamptons in New York, the highest amount believed to have been paid for a property is $32 million--and for that, comedian Jerry Seinfeld bought singer Billy Joel’s 18,000-square-foot mansion on 11 acres.
“I’ve been a Realtor for 21 years, and I can’t think of anything that comes close to this,” said Brian Johnson, who, like other brokers in Orange County’s coastal communities, was stunned by the listing.
The land being sold by Joan Irvine Smith, great-granddaughter of rancher James Irvine, is 70 feet above the surf, high enough for a panoramic view of the coastline and Santa Catalina Island, but mere steps to a beach below that is restricted to the 100 or so families in the community.
“That’s a true trophy property,” said Prudential broker Michael Dreyfus in Newport Beach. “You can’t say, ‘Forget that one, I’ll go find another,’ because there is no other one.”
Smith, 67, would not say why she is selling the property, where she spent summers as a child and which she later wrote about in a book. Smith, who lives at a horse ranch in San Juan Capistrano, referred all calls to the listing firm, Coldwell Banker, whose brokers refused to discuss the property.
On its Web site, Coldwell describes the land as “the largest, most spectacular oceanfront private beach building site ever offered.”
Irvine Cove homes, typically valued at $5 million to $10 million, dot both sides of Coast Highway, heading up the hills in one direction and out past Irvine’s plot on Abalone Point.
Real estate brokers nationwide cite numerous estates for sale at up to $45 million--a waterfront mansion on Lake Washington, a Monterey Peninsula manor--all with homes and acres of landscaped property. But no one could recall two vacant acres that sold or are available for $40 million.
Even in affluent California, which saw a record 11,364 million-dollar-plus home sales last year, the Irvine property left observers speechless. “That’s a shocking number,” said Joe Babajian, chairman of Prudential Real Estate Properties in Beverly Hills.
By comparison, in suburban Seattle, a waterfront estate of more than 30,000 square feet is listed for $45 million. A nine-bedroom, 21-bath mansion in Bel-Air is on the market for $45 million. A Lake Tahoe lodge with seven guest suites has been put up for $40 million. And a mansion on a private knoll in Tiburon in the Bay Area has been listed for $20 million.
Even in Manhattan, $40 million could buy three turn-of-the-century mansions on the Upper East Side with 10,000 square feet each, said Scott Durkin, a chief operating officer at the Corcoran Group, a New York real estate brokerage. If that weren’t enough, a buyer could get a duplex in one of the top buildings in the city, 740 Park Ave., that sold last year for $35 million, among the highest prices on record.
The highest priced home that has sold on three acres in Los Angeles County came in 1992 at a cost of $29.5 million, according to an analysis of real estate records by DataQuick Information Systems Inc. of La Jolla. The data exclude tear-downs, property swaps, ranch properties and sales of multiple lots that might show bigger deals.
Nearby quarter-acre to three-quarter-acre plots along the Newport coast are listed for more than $4.5 million, most with ocean views. Some double parcels are priced at more than $12.5 million. In San Clemente, a few doors down from former President Richard M. Nixon’s old estate, an ocean-view property is listed at $9 million.
Brokers found it hard to assess the value of the Irvine Cove site, but they wondered whether it could fetch such an enormous amount.
“It’s an incredible piece of property, truly a diamond in the rough,” said Bill Cote, a broker with 32 years experience in the area. Cote, who sold a house on Newport Bay’s Harbor Island in 1999 for an Orange County record of $14.5 million, has a 1.2-acre lot in South Laguna listed for $7 million.
Although many buyers have been chastened by the plunging stock market and the general economic malaise, several agents said they believe that enough vigor remains in the market to produce a buyer for the Irvine property.
“I thought at first, ‘Wow, it’s too late. They should have done this three years ago,’ ” Dreyfus said. “But that hasn’t proved to be the case. The market seems to be very active.”
A group of investors could end up with the land: The owner has applied to cut it into three parcels.
Still, some brokers believe that Smith may have to be willing to adjust her price.
“The climate’s changed,” said Strada Properties agent Richard Meany in Newport Beach. “A lot of people made money, a lot of people have money, but they’re not willing to part with it as much as they were a year ago.”
Regardless, in the end, high-priced properties can still sell. “Somebody who wants that property, and is worth a billion dollars-plus won’t be looking at comparable prices,” Babajian said. “They’ll buy it because they want it.”
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Times staff writers David Reyes and E. Scott Reckard contributed to this story.
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Beachfront Property
The two-acre site of the Irvine Ranch family’s former beach house in Laguna Beach is on the market for $40 million.
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