Paul Clinton
A handful of professional offices, eateries, antique shops, a
travel agency and even two aging homes dot the eclectic landscape of
Old Newport Boulevard, an almost forgotten strip of commerce that may
breathe fresh life if local property owners have their way.
Once the main drag through town, leading from Santa Ana to the
Balboa Peninsula, the two-lane road has become somewhat of a relic,
from a time when railroad tracks lay in place of Newport Boulevard,
the now-buzzing route leading from Costa Mesa's Triangle Square to
the Newport Pier.
"That street has been a sleeper, like time passed it by," said Sid
Soffer, one of the district's more notorious proprietors. "But now,
it's blossoming."
The 70-year-old Soffer fled the area in 1995 after an Orange
County judge issued an arrest warrant against him for multiple code
violations at one of his Costa Mesa properties.
More famously, Soffer owned and ran Sid's Restaurant, a wildly
popular steakhouse at 445 Old Newport Blvd. that closed down shortly
before its owner left for Las Vegas.
When contacted Friday, Soffer said he plans to reopen the tavern
in the next few months. He also said he would reopen Issay
Restaurant, an Italian eatery run by his wife, Michiko, until Aug. 9,
2000, when it caught fire and closed.
Soffer, who owns both properties, said he refused an offer earlier
this month to sell both parcels for $2 million. He said he bought the
land under Issay for $90,000 in 1970 and the land under Sid's for
$125,000 in 1980.
The lot under Sid's Restaurant and an adjacent parcel now under
construction perhaps best typify the most recent developments in the
Old Newport Boulevard district. It's a place where the old and the
new lay side by side.
Brion Jeannette, whose architectural firm's offices have been in
the district for the past 25 years, is designing an office next to
Soffer's property for noted heart surgeon Aiden Rainey.
The building will be one of a handful of medical offices that have
gone in during recent years. And with Hoag Hospital's expansion in
full-tilt mode, Jeannette expects other healthcare professionals to
move into the district.
Jeannette and others are working to get the attention of City
Hall, which they say has ignored the section of town since
implementing the new planning standards in April 1997.
"We do need some city help," Jeannette said. "We've been forgotten
about."
Jeannette, as a member of the city's Economic Development
Committee, said he would like to see improvements in the city's
