Field of Dreams

Blessed with a rare sense of quiet, Shady Canyon in Irvine hits a home run with sports stars.

By Craig Reem

Photos by David Kawashima

hen a new neighborhood emerges from the earth, you hope to build a community. On the rarest of occasions, the new homeowners are such that you could very well form a team. Shady Canyon in the southernmost boundary of Irvine is The Irvine Co.'s bet that an exclusive enclave away from the ocean, created around a private golf course, would be a draw. It has become a field of dreams.

Populated by a mix of baseball players as well as a hockey player, a drag racer and one of sports' most influential media types, Shady Canyon is a photo opp at every corner - on streets named Copper Creek and Blue Heron and Golden Eagle.

Residents and those building homes include: Hall-of-Fame sure bet Mark McGwire, Los Angeles Dodger outfielder and Tustin High School graduate Shawn Green, former Angel pitchers Mark Langston and Mike Witt, Mighty Duck-turned-Toronto Maple Leaf Craig Johnson, drag racer Kenny Bernstein, and the media's Jim Rome. Tennis star Lindsay Davenport from Newport Beach is a golf member, as is retired Mighty Duck goalie Guy Hebert.

While Shady Canyon is unique in its price points (multi-millions to settle in a custom home here) and in its wide-open space in community-close Orange County (only 400 homes will be built on more than 1,000 acres), the neighborliness of athletes is not new. Word spreads among that fraternity as it does among, for example, Asians who move families to Irvine, or Latinos who settle in Santa Ana. It is why Hollywood stars flock to Beverly Hills, buy old homes, and knock them down or fix them up. (Here at Shady Canyon, they buy lots and build custom homes, most 6,000 square feet and larger.)

Isleworth Country Club in Orlando, Fla., is home to Tiger Woods and fellow PGA players Mark O'Meara and John Cook. Shaq and Ken Griffey Jr. also have homes there.

The Sherwood Country Club near Thousand Oaks a dozen years ago became a draw for athletes from the Los Angeles area. Wayne Gretzky has a home; course designer Jack Nicklaus owns a lot.

Manhattan Beach, well-regarded for its ocean breezes and closeness to everything important in Los Angeles, attracts Kings and Lakers. Mike Piazza and Eric Karros lived there while playing for the Dodgers. Former Mighty Duck Craig Johnson (see related story), lived for a time in Manhattan Beach and will be a Shady Canyon resident in a few months.

A number of present and former Sacramento Kings live in Granite Bay outside Folsom, including an exclusive housing area called Los Lagos. And at least two Angels - Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson - live in a gated community in Tustin Ranch.

Now, here is Shady Canyon, an exclusive enclave of custom lots that got a big publicity push when McGwire, on the eve of retirement, bought two lots some three years ago. Even with the big names - and McGwire's already is etched on a club golf championship trophy as the 2003 Men's Stroke Play Club champion - the allure is the place rather than the names.

"It's clearly something that's very unique and very different and will not be replicated anywhere in the region," predicts Joe Davis, president, Irvine Community Development Co., the homebuilding component of The Irvine Co. He points to the attributes - large lots, few homes, and a canyon surrounded on one side by a part of Turtle Rock and on the other three by permanent open space that spills toward Laguna Beach in one direction, the Pacific Ocean in another. Sand Canyon Avenue, which ends at the 405 where Shady Canyon Drive picks up, at one point was going to cut through the property all the way to Coast Highway south of Crystal Cove State Beach. That was about nine years ago, when Shady Canyon's master plan called for as many as 3,300 homes and thousands of square feet of commercial space. Davis was hired to oversee a scaled-down version, a boutique community as different to Orange County as it would be exclusive.

The location is well-suited for the baseball player needing to get quickly pointed toward Dodger Stadium, the businessperson driving 10 minutes to Irvine Spectrum or 10 minutes to Newport Center or 20 minutes to South Coast Metro, or racing 15 minutes to John Wayne Airport. Location works for the Pacific Ocean sailor seeking a day at sea, who can have his boat in the Newport Bay in 20 or 25 minutes.