That’s a Lot: $40 Million for Irvines’ Parcel
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 unprecedented $40 million.
If the property is sold at or near that amount--and that is a big “if” in this shaky economy--it would set a record for residential land in Southern California, possibly anywhere in the country, according to brokers.
At $459 a square foot, the parcel in the gated community known as Irvine Cove is about four times more expensive than 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 was $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.
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“That’s a true trophy property,” said Prudential broker Michael Dreyfus in Corona del Mar. “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 Irvine Cove property, a place where she spent summers as a child and later wrote about in a book. Smith, who lives at her horse ranch in San Juan Capistrano, referred all calls to the listing firm, Coldwell Banker, where brokers refused to discuss the sale.
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 North Coast Highway, heading up the hills in one direction and out past Irvine’s plot on Abalone Point in the other.
Real estate brokers nationwide cite numerous estates for sale at up to $45 million--a waterfront mansion on suburban Seattle’s Lake Washington, a Monterrey 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 sold a record 11,364 million-dollar-plus homes last year, the Irvine listing 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 containing more than 30,000 square feet is currently listed for $45 million. A nine-bedroom 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 of space 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.
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The highest-priced home sold in Los Angeles County was a three-acre property bought in 1992 for $29.5 million, according to an analysis of real estate records by DataQuick Information Systems Inc., a La Jolla firm. The data excludes 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 Newport Coast are listed for about $3.5 million to $4.5 million, most with ocean views. 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.
In selling, the Irvine family is parting with a chunk of personal history. The land was the site of what the family called the “little green house”--two tenant houses that were joined together on the bluff. Steps were built down the cliff to the beach and a bathhouse.
The home, set up around 1929, became a favorite spot for summer fun and parties.
In her book, “Reflections of California,” Joan Irvine Smith recalls fond childhood memories of hunting for seashells and starfish at low tide while watching the surf cascade toward shore, where she would plant her feet and delight in the white foam swirling around her.
“I loved our summers at the cove,” Smith writes, sharing her mother’s memories of Irvine Ranch owner James Irvine II tossing firecrackers during a 1929 Fourth of July celebration at the cove.
Her father, however, suffered from tuberculosis, and the family couldn’t stay long in the damp coastal air. Eventually, the house, the steps and the bathhouse were removed.
Smith and a son, James Swinden, who owns 6% of the property and lives in neighboring Emerald Bay, recently began advertising the property for $40 million in national publications.
Brokers found it hard to assess the value of the Irvine Cove site, and they wondered whether it could fetch such an enormous sum.
“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 Harbor Island house 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 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.”
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To find a well-heeled buyer, high-end properties may be listed for a year or more. A group of investors also could end up with the Irvine Cove land: The Irvines already have applied to cut the property into three parcels.
Still, some brokers were more tempered in their remarks about the market, believing that the Irvines may have to be willing to adjust their price. With the stock market retreating, fewer million-dollar properties may be sold this year.
“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 of increasingly tepid times or what other properties cost, 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.”
Times staff writers David Reyes and E. Scott Reckard contributed to this story.
