OC Supervisors and Developer at Odds over Dana Point Harbor Remodel

The redevelopment of Dana Point Harbor is on hold while county leaders
sort out a dispute over the future of the harbor’s hotels, with the
developer insisting they need a new lease to break ground while county
leaders say they need more benefits and safeguards out of the deal. 

It’s a renegotiation of the deal that county supervisors first struck in
2018 with Dana Point Harbor Partners, a coalition of developers who won
the county’s approval after a competitive bidding process. 

While the redevelopment was originally expected to cost around $337
million, delays from the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and other
regulative delays have pushed the price tag to over $700 million. 

Now, the developers and county staff say they need a new lease with the
county in order to secure financing for the two hotels along the harbor,
one of which will be select service to keep prices down for visitors
looking to stay at the coast on a budget. 

“The reality here is that without the changes to the pending hotel,
commercial core, and drystack leases outlined in Exhibit A, DPHP (Dana
Point Harbor Partners) is unable to proceed with the development of the
two proposed hotels,” reads a letter to the board on June 22.  

County leaders were originally expected to greenlight the deal in June,
but ultimately bumped discussion to August 11 after several disputes
over the final terms before they went on their summer break. 

Several county supervisors brought up concerns with the deal, including
how the final contract wasn’t even made available until hours before
their previous meeting discussing the deal on June 23. 

“I’m very supportive of the redevelopment,” Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento
said at the meeting. “However, I do have some concerns with the timing,
with the ability for us to deliberate thoughtfully.” 

The loudest critic of the deal was Supervisor Katrina Foley, who said
she wanted the project to move forward but laid out a laundry list of
concerns she asked the developers about that went unanswered. 

“We felt the original contract that was negotiated was low,” Foley said.

One of the biggest complaints from Foley came over the issue of boat
parking rates, which currently are not addressed in the lease, but have
shot up over the years, pushing as many as 800 boaters out of the
harbor, according to Anne Eubanks, president of the Dana Point Boaters
Association. 

“Where we have concerns is there’s no language in the old lease, the
existing lease nor the proposed new lease which protects slip rate
pricing for boaters,” Eubanks said in a Wednesday interview. “This is
not a private marina – it is a public marina.” 

In a letter to the county on June 20, Eubanks also mapped out just how
much their prices have skyrocketed, highlighting the slips where they
park their boats have gotten much more expensive. 

“Dana Point boaters received a 2.8% County rate increase in July 2018,”
Eubanks wrote. “DPHP then raised slip rates by 26% to 95% in 2021,
depending on slip size, followed by average increases of 7.9% in 2024,
9% in 2025, and another 9% in 2026. The Partners have also announced
that slip rates will increase by 9% annually for the next several
years.” 

“Dana Point Marina is supposed to be a public marina not a private,
for-profit entity,” she continued. “It is supposed to pay for itself,
but it was never intended that the majority of the revenue to support
the commercial core and hotels should come from slip fee revenue.” 

Foley also brought up concerns over the employees of the existing Dana
Point Marina Inn and what they would do for work in the meantime,
highlighting how there were no protections for them and pushing for a
labor peace agreement when the new hotels open. 

Ada Briceño, co-president of the Unite Here Local 11 union, said the
project needs to have a right of return for workers for when the new
hotels open. 

“It’s imperative that they have worker retention that will safeguard
them when this specific project is finalized so workers can come back,”
Briceño said in a Monday interview. “If John Wayne (Airport) already has
worker retention and it’s a county-owned property, then we also need to
make sure that the Dana Point hotel also has worker retention.” 

Other concerns from Foley included an increase in rent payments from the
developer to the county, sea bass pens, new docks for the harbor patrol
boats and other upgrades to the harbor. 

“There are elements we could not get agreement on,” Foley said. “The
contract that is before you is what CEO Real Estate and CEO’s office was
able to negotiate.”  

RD Olson Development, which leads the hospitality portion of the Dana
Point Harbor Partners, did not respond to requests for comment on other
complaints. 

Supervisor Don Wagner argued that Foley’s push would be too far for the
developers at the June meeting. 

“Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered,” Wagner said. “This passes the hog
line to me.” 

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at
[email protected]. 

https://voiceofoc.org/2026/08/oc-supervisors-and-developer-at-odds-over-d
ana-point-harbor-remodel/