Driftwood Kitchen and The Deck served their final meals on the Laguna Beach oceanfront last Monday, closing out roughly a decade of business at 647 South Coast Highway to make way for a sweeping resort redevelopment. The two restaurants sat on a larger parcel that includes the Pacific Edge Hotel, and their closure was not driven by financial losses but by the property's new owners moving forward with permitting and construction plans, according to the New York Post.
The restaurants had built a following over roughly ten years, hosting charity galas, earning awards, and by one count shucking nearly one million oysters, per the same New York Post report by writer Bianca Zalben. The Deck launched in 2012 and Driftwood Kitchen opened in 2013, both run by executive chef and partner Rainer Schwarz alongside business partner John Nye. Driftwood Kitchen occupied a space with deep oceanfront dining roots, having taken over the site long held by the Beach House restaurant, which operated there for 45 years before Schwarz and Nye converted it into a coastal seafood concept in 2014, according to Kim Bibb Real Estate.
A Beloved Chef's Absence Looms Over the Closures
The closures carry extra emotional weight for Laguna Beach because Schwarz, a chef trained in Europe, died at age 59 in a car crash in Dana Point in April, just months before the restaurants shut down. Hoodline reported on his death at the time in a piece detailing his decades-long culinary career and the loss felt across the local restaurant community, a connection Hoodline previously reported in April.
Locals have reacted with frustration to watching another stretch of the coast change hands. One commenter described the redevelopment, as quoted by the New York Post, as another case of “a charming, vintage, coastal Orange County icon being bulldozed and replaced with some monstrosity.” Another local commenter, per the same report, said Laguna Beach “is slowly losing its charm and turning into money-hungry resort conglomerates.” More than 50 Laguna restaurants have closed for financial reasons in recent years, the Post noted, a backdrop that fuels local fears the town is losing its casual coastal character even though these particular closures stem from redevelopment rather than business failure.
Who's Behind the New Resort
The property was purchased in August 2024 for $80 million by Dune Drifter LLC, a firm co-founded by investors Cramer Williams and Chris Harrison, the grandson of Marriott International Executive Chairman Bill Marriott, according to Hotel Investment Today. That $80 million price tag, paid to sellers Highgate Hotels LP and Morgan Stanley, worked out to $640,000 per room and marked the highest per-key hotel transaction in California in 2024, per The Real Deal.
The Pacific Edge Hotel complex itself dates to 1963, when it opened as the Vacation Village Hotel. The 44,700-square-foot property spans 11 buildings from South Coast Highway down to the beach, and was owned for four decades by the Haneline family before selling in 2017, The Real Deal reports. Planned redevelopment spending is estimated to exceed $125 million, pushing total project costs above $1 million per room once the work is finished, according to The Registry Southern California Real Estate News. That scope includes building 25 new rooms along with expanded dining and new office and conference facilities, the outlet notes.
Years of Regulatory Review Before Breaking Ground
Getting to this point required years of municipal and state sign-off. The California Coastal Commission approved the hotel's coastal development permit back in March 2022 following an appeal from hospitality union UNITE HERE Local 11, a process that required the developer to provide six lower-cost rooms at $130 per night and pay a $31,750 in-lieu mitigation fee, per the Los Angeles Times' Daily Pilot coverage.
More recently, the Laguna Beach Planning Commission approved modified project plans in November 2025 that trimmed the total room count to 136 and swapped surface parking for an automated garage. Dune Drifter LLC has also established a construction staging area. The renovation timeline is projected at 24 to 26 months, according to the City of Laguna Beach.
The new resort, expected to arrive in about three years and cater to high-end travelers, will join a Laguna Beach luxury market where nightly rates already reach up to $1,800. Orange County's record hotel sale remains the Montage Laguna Beach, which billionaire Tilman Fertitta bought for $650 million in late 2022, or roughly $2.5 million per room, according to The Real Deal — a ceiling that underscores just how much capital is now chasing this stretch of coastline. Whether Driftwood Kitchen and The Deck's operators will return once construction wraps remains an open question that has not been answered publicly.
