CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

AERIE Construction Won’t Begin For Months, Owner Says

The AERIE condominium development may have cleared the Coastal Commission and City Council after nearly three years of hearings and debate. But construction of the seven-unit building along Ocean Boulevard and Carnation Avenue won’t begin until the end of the year at the earliest, owner Richard Julian said in an interview.

“We have to do working drawings,” Julian said. “The final drawings are very detailed, very expensive and take four to five months.”

Julian said demolition could begin before the end of the year, but he and his family members stay in the apartments currently on the site, so they want to wait until everything is set before they begin.

“We have to see how that goes,” he said. “There will be a lot of little things that have to be done.”

The Coastal Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved AERIE’s plans after rejecting the project in April 2010, and having the plans withdrawn in March just moments before another no vote seemed imminent; read our stories here, here and here.

Since April 2010, the project was reduced in size by one unit with a 17 percent reduction in square feet and a 61 percent reduction in bluff excavation. Construction time was cut from 32 to 25 months.

Opponents said the project at 51,124 square feet was still too big for the neighborhood, and a few commissioners on Wednesday said they too had concerns. But in the end, the commissioners agreed with the staff recommendation of approval.

After the hearing in Marina del Rey, Julian and several supporters drove to Corona del Mar to the AERIE project site and had a party.

“Every time I turned around, there was somebody new there,” he said. “Everybody was really excited. We had a lot of Champagne.”