Remote Surveillance Trailer in Newport Beach, CA

Between Los Angeles and San Diego, Orange County, California features miles of pristine coastline just waiting to be enjoyed. If you want your dog to join your beach excursion, you’ll find plenty of choices in Orange County. However, because of the popularity of most beaches in the county, dogs are generally prohibited during busy hours and seasons.

Check the rules before you head for the shore with your pup. Here are the top 10 dog-friendly beaches in Orange County, CA.

Top 10 Dog-Friendly Beaches in Orange County, CA

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Conclusion

To help inspire local authorities to keep Orange County beaches dog-friendly, be sure to follow leash laws and pick up after your pup. To be safe, pack your own waste bags, water, and dog-safe sunscreen. Rinse the salt and sand off your dog before you head home, and of course, pay attention to the weather and don’t let your pup get overheated.

This precaution may be easier on Orange County beaches, where dogs are often prohibited during the hottest part of the day anyway.

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Featured Image Credit: Ogutier, Pixabay

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. — CBRE has facilitated the sale of 1419 Superior Avenue, a medical office building in Newport Beach, to a local owner-user. Equity Enterprises Ltd. sold the property for $5 million. Anthony DeLorenzo, Sammy Cemo, Bryan Johnson and Harry Su of CBRE represented the seller in the deal.

Situated across from the 498-bed acute care hospital Hoag Newport Beach, the 8,935-square-foot building was 62 percent leased at the time of sale to four tenants.

ROCKDALE, TEXAS — T1 Energy (NYSE: TE), the company formerly known as FREYR Battery, will open an $850 million solar cell manufacturing facility in Rockdale, located northeast of Austin in Milam County. The site spans 100 acres within Sandow Lakes, the mixed-use redevelopment of a 33,000-acre industrial park formerly occupied by aluminum manufacturer Alcoa, and the facility could employ as many as 1,800 people. According to Manufacturing Dive, T1 Energy is aiming to start construction in the second or third quarter, with production expected to commence in late 2026.

OLYMPIA, WASH. — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has arranged the sale of Parkview, a multifamily property within the 137-acre Briggs Village master-planned community in Olympia. Amoroso Cos. sold the asset to Nearon Enterprises for an undisclosed price.

Completed in 2012, Parkview offers 72 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with nine-foot ceilings, electric fireplaces and private decks or patios. Community amenities include onsite parking, bike storage, a fenced dog run and package lockers.

Ryan Harmon, Philip Assouad, Giovanni Napoli, Nick Ruggiero and Anthony Palladino of IPA represented the seller and procured the buyer in the deal.

TUCSON, ARIZ. — Winterhaven Investors LLC has acquired Winterhaven Square, a retail center in Tucson, from Glover Associates LP for $5.3 million. Located at 3102-3160 E. Fort Lowell Road, Winterhaven Square offers 35,300 square feet of retail space.

Greg Furrier, Rob Tomlinson and Natalie Furrier of Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR handled the transaction.

CARLSBAD, CALIF. — Roseville, Calif.-based USA Properties Fund and Los Angeles-based The Pinyon Group have opened Vintage at Marja Acres, an affordable age-restricted community in Carlsbad. Located at 4660 Garden Hill Loop, Vintage at Marja Acres offers 47 apartments, a community room, wellness/health center and onsite laundry.

The one-bedroom apartments feature energy-efficient appliances and light fixtures, and low-flow faucets, showers and toilets. The units are designated for residents at least 55 years old who earn 30 percent to 60 percent of the area median income for San Diego County, Calif.

Vintage at Marja Acres is a public-private partnership that includes the City of Carlsbad, Riverside Charitable Corp. and WNC Inc. JPMorgan Chase is the construction and permanent lender for the $21 million project. IHP Capital Partners and KB Homes are also partners on the project, which is in infill community that is named after a former longtime nursery on the property.

By David Leopold, SVP, Head of Affordable Housing, Berkadia

In today’s shifting real estate landscape, investors increasingly prioritize stability and long-term value. One sector that has consistently demonstrated stability is affordable housing — particularly Section 8 properties backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

With guaranteed rental income and high demand, Section 8 housing has become an attractive investment vehicle for those looking to diversify their portfolios while contributing to the critical need for affordable housing.

As part of this trend, in 2024 Berkadia financed $837 million and sold more than $172 million in Section 8 properties, including the sale and financing of Lauderhill Point, a Section 8 affordable housing community in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. This arrangement underpins the firm’s affordable housing expertise, employing production leaders with an average of 25 years in the sector.

For investors exploring opportunities in affordable housing, success depends on understanding the unique benefits and requirements of Section 8 properties.

Section 8 Housing as a Safe Haven

The largest federal subsidized housing program in the United States, project-based Section 8 provides financial assistance to millions of households across the country, making it a steady source of demand that can give investors reassurance in the market.

HUD’s backing makes Section 8 a credible investment vehicle, as HUD guarantees that a significant portion of residents’ monthly rent payments is paid directly to landlords. This reliable income stream means that investors in HUD properties are inherently less exposed to the risks of missed or late payments in addition to ensuring ongoing demand for the units.

Such financial stability is just one of the advantages of investing in Section 8 housing. In addition to having a steady source of income, HUD properties offer strong investments that can withstand economic uncertainty, let alone a recessionary environment. Over the past four years, HUD’s contractual commitments to Section 8 housing have grown by almost 40 percent to $12.8 billion, up from $9.2 billion in 2020, according to the agency’s 2025 Budget in Brief.

HUD’s increasing commitment during periods of macroeconomic uncertainty reinforces their commitment to helping alleviate the ever-growing need for affordable housing across the county. Given the high demand for Section 8 housing, vacancy rates are typically low as HUD data shows that 4.3 million low-income families participate in the program through public housing, rental subsidies or voucher initiatives.

Where other real estate sectors may struggle as residents experience economic hardship, Section 8 housing is an area that is more resilient to volatility. As a result, investors are positioned to see returns on their investment due to the stability provided by HUD’s backing.

An Investment with Impact

Investing in Section 8 housing is also an opportunity to help address the major challenge of affordable housing access across the country.

Although returns on investment are a natural incentive, supporting Section 8 housing provides investors with an opportunity to have a meaningful impact on their community by meeting this dire need for quality affordable housing. To this end, investors who participate in the Section 8 housing program need to adhere to specific standards requiring that their properties undergo periodic inspections. The guaranteed income from rental payments means that investors can more predictably reinvest excess cash flow to improve asset quality and resident services. Many Section 8 properties were built in the 1970s and 1980s; upon acquisition, developers will need to consider the capital expenditure needs of each property.

In terms of investment criteria, there’s several factors that investors should consider when evaluating if Section 8 housing is the right opportunity for them. At the outset, it’s important to understand the extent to which a given location has the right mix of high demand for affordable housing, competitive property values and a supportive local housing authority. Similarly, markets that are experiencing job and population growth along with infrastructure improvements typically have higher demand for housing, a dynamic which makes these areas prime targets for investments in Section 8 housing.

The combination of these factors will ultimately improve investors’ chances for not only seeing favorable returns on investment but also ensuring that they’re aligning with that area’s needs and will receive sufficient government support.

While meeting the growing demand for affordable housing is imperative — one that stakeholders should continue working to address — it’s equally important to partner with someone like Berkadia, who will not only provide you with best-in-class solutions to navigate an evolving landscape but also achieve your investment goals in the most resilient part of the sector.

Berkadia is a content partner of REBusiness. For more articles from and news about Berkadia, click here.

March 4, 2025 3:12 PM PT

It’s practically a miracle the building that used to serve as Newport Beach Fire’s Peninsula Station #2 on 32nd Street and Via Oporto was still standing by the time Chief Jeff Boyles started his career there as a paramedic intern in the late ’90s. He and other firefighters used to say “the termites and the dry rot are holding it up.”

“I couldn’t believe, when I came to this station in ’98, how old and how big of a dump this fire station was,” he told about 70 people gathered outside of the building Monday afternoon.

The crowd included Mayor Joe Stapleton and other members of the City Council, as well as current and former firefighters like Todd Knipp, who helped renovate the structure over the years. He spent 30 years with Newport Beach Fire before retiring in 2015.

Knipp fondly remembered adding the third floor expansion over the station’s garage and converting one of its rooms into a women’s restroom in 1999 to accommodate the department’s first female firefighter, Erin Alexander. As they strolled through the vacant building’s cramped, empty corridors Monday, the two of them reminisced about family-style meals interrupted by the ring of alarms summoning them to an emergency.

“It was the quintessential Newport Beach Fire Department experience,” Knipp said. “It was the busiest station. You were responding to the beach. You had Pacific Coast Highway. You had those crazy summers. Fourth of July was crazy ... You were out having doughnuts at the pier at 5 o’ clock in the morning because you’d be up all night.”

The station was built in 1953 and used to house just four firefighters running two engines, said Mel Kiddie. He joined Newport Beach Fire at the age of 21 in 1958, and got sent out on a call during his first day on the job.

“The bell went off and there’s a fire, and they said, ‘You’re driving that truck,’” Kiddie recalled. “And I had no experience at all!”

The number of firefighters living at the station more than doubled by the time Knipp and Alexander were working there. But it has been vacant since the department moved operations to a new facility about a quarter of a mile away in 2022.

The defunct station opened its doors one last time to let firefighters and members of the community sign its walls before its demolition. They cheered as the arm of a bulldozer punched through the upper floor walls Knipp and others once helped erect.

An expansion of the neighboring Lido House hotel will be built in its place. That project includes the enlargement of three existing guest rooms and the addition of five new cottages as well as a greenhouse sitting room.

The development will add space for new restaurant concepts as well as much needed parking, Mayor Joe Stapleton said Monday. He added that the hotel’s growth will likely lead to additional revenue for the city via the transit occupancy tax.

Meanwhile, the city expects to begin the demolition and renovation of Fire Station 1 and the adjacent Balboa Branch Library by the fourth quarter of this year, Stapleton said. That upgrade is expected to cost about $18 million.