Old World vision spurs him

Deirdre Newman

Stephen Sutherland relishes a new challenge, and the controversy over

his Marinapark hotel project is just the latest crucible he says he’s

had to contend with.

Sutherland has not backed down from promoting his project as the

ideal development of the Balboa Peninsula site after being

relentlessly attacked by opponents who don’t want the property’s

zoning changed from recreation and open space.

“My mom collected early American antiques, and one of the pieces

she had was an old 1800 school desk ... and on the side was some iron

work and the words, ‘strive and win,’” Sutherland said. “That was

next to my bed as a child, so that was the last thing I saw before I

went to sleep and the first thing I would see in the morning. I think

that ‘strive and win’ philosophy is why I work so hard.”

Sutherland has designed a luxury hotel for the site, where a

mobile-home park now sits. He also has offered to renovate the nearby

Girl Scout house and the American Legion building. On Tuesday, voters

will decide if they want to adopt a general-plan amendment that would

change the zoning of the site to allow for a hotel such as his

project.

Sutherland’s roots in the city run deep. His family moved to

Newport Beach when he was 11. He attended UC Irvine’s School of

Social Ecology for three years, then left the university to live in

Europe. He started in Rome, spending six months there and six months

at his main residence here. Living and traveling in Europe turned him

on to the beauty and sophistication of the architecture, he said.

His passion for high-end cars then inspired him to open a

rental-car business in Newport Beach that specialized in the likes of

Ferraris and Porsches.

After Rome, he got a place in Zurich, working with Mercedes-Benz

and some United States Mercedes dealers, assisting them in getting

special Mercedes cars.

European architecture remained a fascination, he said.

“Being in Europe as much and traveling as much gave me the

opportunity to visit and stay at the world’s best hotel -- the Hotel

du Cap in Antibes, our sister city,” Sutherland said. “Antibes has

its peninsula -- it’s the same thing as what I’m doing here with the

Balboa Peninsula.”

He returned to settle down full-time in Newport Beach in the late

1980s and became the vice president of a local architectural firm

that focused on upscale resort and hotel design. But he pined for

another challenge and left the company in 1990.

“It was a big risk,” he said. “I like challenges. I got

comfortable as the vice president. I knew I was at the peak of my

professional future with the firm, so I knew it was time to leave. I

wasn’t sure what I would do.”

He ended up opening his own architectural firm, with a partner,

with offices here, in Mexico City and Guadalajara. The company

developed the most expensive residential development in Mexico, at a

cost of about $300 million, in 1998. The project included 19

condominium towers surrounding a Jack Nicklaus golf course with

helipads on the roof, Sutherland said.

The company also designed the Village at Cabo Real in Los Cabos, a

mixed-use residential project. In 1999, he sold the firm and ended up

working with a European bank that financed one of the projects he

designed in Mexico. For 2000 and most of 2001, he traveled back and

forth to his home and office in Marbella, Spain.

The Marinapark hotel is designed based on the architecture in

Marbella, he said.

While the inveterate bachelor never thought he would get married

or have children, he was smitten by a woman from Seattle at his

nephew’s wedding eight years ago and tied the knot at the age of 48.

The couple has a 3-year-old daughter.

His proposal for the Marinapark site combined his affinity for

European architecture, his experience designing resorts and his

intimate knowledge of Newport Beach, he said. When he found out his

project was chosen as the one the city wanted to pursue exclusively,

he was thrilled.

He said he has been personally attacked for two years by

opponents, but considers it par for the course. No matter what

happens on election day, Sutherland will have reason to celebrate:

The election falls on his wedding anniversary.

“Nov. 2 is the luckiest day of my life, and no matter what the

outcome, it will still be the best day of my life,” he said.