Dana Point / Coastal Orange County
Dana Point has little large-format space, and the one showroom-style operator we could confirm is Unique Accents, an interior design and home decor showroom with custom furniture and Hunter Douglas shades at Monarch Bay Plaza on Pacific Coast Highway at Crown Valley Parkway; Visit Dana Point also describes that center as having fine furniture and specialty stores. For tile, cabinet or design showrooms that the code treats as building materials sales, the Doheny Village districts along Doheny Park Road permit the use by right, while the Neighborhood Commercial district does not allow it. Kidder Mathews lists 30,000 SF under construction at Dana Point Harbor for 1Q 2027, but harbor space follows the Harbor Revitalization Plan rather than the commercial district table.
Population
32,790
Median HHI
$141,520
Median age
47.4
Homeownership
62.4%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates.
Primary retail corridors
Pacific Coast Highway · Del Prado Avenue · Crown Valley Parkway · Golden Lantern · Street of the Green Lantern
Specific shopping centers in Dana Point that already carry credible co-tenancy for this use. Listed in approximate order of fit.
Pacific Coast Highway at Crown Valley Parkway
Anchors / key tenants: Gelson's Market, CVS Pharmacy
PCH at Crown Valley — the premium daily-needs and dining node for the Monarch Beach/Ritz-Carlton trade area. Restaurant mix includes Ichibiri Japanese, LUA Asian Fusion, and Salt Creek Grille. Local boutiques (Coastal Accents, Meesh Boutique) anchor the lifestyle side.
Del Prado Avenue off Pacific Coast Highway
Anchors / key tenants: revitalized town-center dining and boutiques
The walkable revitalized core of Dana Point's town center — Spanish-style architecture, mile-long pedestrian shopping/dining corridor. Tilts toward chef-driven restaurants, boutiques, and lifestyle retail rather than daily-needs.
Dana Point Harbor Drive
Anchors / key tenants: harbor-facing seasonal and visitor retail
Harbor retail — seasonal visitor pattern, boat-charter and dock-traffic cross-shop. Currently in long-term redevelopment. Better for visitor-driven food and lifestyle concepts than daily-needs.
Existing operators are the most honest comp for whether a use can support Dana Point rents. These are publicly visible showroom retail space businesses currently trading in the market.
Unique Accents
Monarch Bay Plaza, 32880 Pacific Coast Highway, Suites 40-41, Dana Point, CA 92629
Per the center's tenant page: started in 1997 as an interior design and home decor showroom in Laguna Hills, moved to Laguna Niguel in 2000, and opened its newest showroom at Monarch Bay Plaza. Offers interior design services, custom furniture, Hunter Douglas window shades and window treatments alongside home decor and apparel.
Coastal Accents
Monarch Bay Plaza, 32880 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 37, Dana Point, CA 92629
Home decor and gift store per the center's tenant page. Smaller-format decor retail rather than a furniture showroom.
01
Classification: Section 9.75.270 defines a Furniture Store as the display and retail sale of interior furnishings, naming large appliances, floor coverings, window coverings, bedding, kitchen and bath fixtures, and lamps and lighting. Building Materials Sales and Service Uses covers interior design shops, cabinet shops, carpet, tile, glass and mirror, paint and wallpaper, drapery and home improvement centers. Get Planning's classification in writing, because the two rows are treated differently.
02
District table: under Section 9.11.020(b), Furniture Store is permitted in NC, CC/P and CC/V and needs a conditional use permit in V/RC. Building Materials Sales and Service Uses is prohibited in NC, permitted in CC/P and CC/V, and conditional in V/RC. In the Doheny Village districts (Section 9.14.020(d), added by Ord. 21-04 in 2021) both uses are permitted in V-C/I, V-C/R and V-MS.
03
EV and auto showrooms: Automotive Sales and Rental Uses are prohibited in NC and C* (conditional use permit plus special standards) in CC/P, CC/V, V/RC and all three Doheny Village districts. Section 9.07.080 adds a minimum lot width of 100 feet, a minimum lot area of 10,000 sq ft, a permanent sales building of at least 200 sq ft, and walls or landscaping for compatibility. An inline EV gallery in a shopping center should confirm early whether Planning treats it as automotive sales.
04
Parking: Section 9.35.080(e) parks Furniture Stores at 1 stall per 500 sq ft, against 1 per 220 sq ft (multi-tenant center under 25,000 sq ft) or 1 per 250 sq ft (over 25,000 sq ft) for general retail. A 5,000 sq ft furniture showroom needs 10 stalls instead of 20 to 23. Landlords should note that a later change to general retail would need the higher count. Automobile sales are parked at 1 per 400 sq ft of indoor floor area plus 1 per 4,000 sq ft of outdoor sales area.
05
Outdoor display: Section 9.07.120 limits outdoor display to goods of the on-site use, caps it at six feet high unless a Site Development Permit is approved, and bars it from required parking and the public right-of-way. Garden equipment and building materials may be displayed outside only in side or rear yards. Sidewalk displays of furniture along Pacific Coast Highway should be planned with this in mind.
06
Plan areas and the coast: Lantern District sites follow the Dana Point Town Center Plan as amended by the 2015 voter initiative, which under Section 9.26.010 caps buildings at three stories and 40 feet, enforces Section 9.35.080(e) parking for each use with no credit for public parking, and enforces on-site loading. Harbor sites follow the Harbor Revitalization Plan (Section 9.25.010). Elsewhere in the Coastal Overlay District, Section 9.69.020 requires a coastal development permit for development, which Section 9.75.040 defines to include a change in the intensity of use.
Zoning, licensing, and demographic figures on this page come from the public records below. Codes and licenses change, so confirm with the city and the licensing agency before you sign.