The Deck Is Closed for the Pacific Edge Rebuild. What's Coming to Sleepy Hollow Lane, and Where Laguna's Sunsets On the Sand Went

The Deck on Laguna Beach and Driftwood Kitchen have been dark since early September. Construction staging for the Pacific Edge Hotel is now permitted on the lot at 30802 Coast Highway through October 2028. Oceanfront dining space on Sleepy Hollow Lane is written into every version of the hotel's approved plan, and the staging permit gives the work a two-year window. What the paperwork leaves open is who will run those seats when they reopen.

Until then, a sunset drink over the sand in Laguna means looking down at the beach from somewhere higher up. Splashes at the Surf and Sand?, The Cliff? Las Brisas? 

A closure with a permit attached

The Laguna Beach Independent reported that both restaurants closed on Monday, Sept. 7, after more than a decade on the sand. The Orange County Register cited a WARN notice listing Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day, as the final date.

The restaurants were doing fine. In a statement the Independent quoted, management noted that more than 50 Laguna restaurants had closed for financial reasons over the past decade and said, "we want to emphasize that is not the case here." Chris Whitman, managing director of Pacific Edge Hotel, told the Register that the closure "is part of the planned redevelopment of the Pacific Edge Hotel property."

That matters because a restaurant that closes for financial reasons leaves an empty storefront. These two closed so the building around them could be rebuilt. The site has a long record as a place to eat on the sand. According to the Register, chef Rainer Schwarz and John Nye opened The Deck right on the sand in 2012. Driftwood Kitchen followed in 2013, replacing The Beach House, which had operated there for 45 years. Over that run, the restaurants said they served nearly one million oysters, and their Sip & Shuck events raised money for local nonprofits for 10 years.

What the approvals keep on the sand

The Pacific Edge plans have changed hands and changed shape since 2021, but restaurant space on the sand has stayed in every version. Dune Drifter LLC bought the property in August 2024 for $80 million, Hoodline reported. Hoodline described the price as the highest per-room hotel sale in California that year, and planned redevelopment spending is estimated at more than $125 million. The new owners took over an approval granted to the previous owners and went back to the Planning Commission to modify it.

The City of Laguna Beach project page still describes the 2021 version, so its seat counts are the baseline the later plan was built from, not the final count. Diane Armitage's account of the November 2025 hearing on her Best of Laguna Beach newsletter lists "revised restaurant and café allocations" among the changes the Commission approved 5–0. The 2025 Coastal Commission extension notice for the project's permit still describes the scope as including "expansion of restaurant" and a "new café."

What no public document names is an operator. Hoodline put it directly: whether the operators of Driftwood Kitchen and The Deck will return "remains an open question that has not been answered publicly." The hotel's own website now serves as a redevelopment-update page and does not name a brand or management company.

The calendar the permits imply

Taken together, the approvals give a rough timeline even though no reopening date has been announced.

1. March 2022. The California Coastal Commission approved the coastal development permit after an appeal by UNITE HERE Local 11. The conditions included six lower-cost rooms at $130 a night and a $31,750 in-lieu mitigation fee, per Hoodline's summary of Daily Pilot coverage.
2. March 2025. Dune Drifter applied for a second one-year extension of that permit.
3. November 2025. The Planning Commission approved the modified plans. The larger excavation phase was expected to start after Labor Day 2026.
4. September 2026. The restaurants closed. On Sept. 2, the Planning Commission approved Temporary Use Permit 2026-1685 for a construction staging area.
5. October 2026 through October 2028. The staging area is authorized for this window.

Hoodline reports that the City of Laguna Beach projects 24 to 26 months of construction. Counted from a post-Labor Day 2026 start, that ends in fall 2028, the same month the staging permit expires. The same Hoodline piece described the finished resort as arriving "in about three years," a looser estimate that would land in 2029. The permit window is the firmest date on record. Neither source is a promise.

Sleepy Hollow Lane in the meantime

Construction gets most of its definition from the staging permit. The lot at 30802 Coast Highway sits in the city's Recreation zone. The approval requires noise mitigation, including no backup beeper alarms during restricted hours. The site is also in the Hobo Canyon area of deferred certification, so coastal permit jurisdiction for the staging area rests with the California Coastal Commission, and city staff are coordinating with it.

At the November 2025 hearing, the applicant's general contractor described smaller trucks on a predictable schedule, crews shuttled in so their cars stay out of nearby neighborhoods, and off-site truck staging. Commissioners added conditions that included pedestrian right-of-way on Sleepy Hollow Lane and keeping travel lanes open on Coast Highway.

The longer-term change to the lane is the parking. The approved plan moves valet away from the current split between the Coast Highway entrance and the Sleepy Hollow station. Arrivals would use an oceanfront-facing roundabout reached from both sides of the lane, with cars stored in a partially subterranean automated system built by Utron.

The beach in front keeps its public character on paper. The 2022 Coastal Commission approval included a condition keeping construction off the beach, according to the Daily Pilot. The permit scope also includes "dedication of lateral public access easement across the beach fronting the hotel." The notice does not spell out the easement's terms, but its subject is public access along the sand in front of the hotel.

Where Sunsets on the Sand went, and what none of them replace

Three Laguna Beach spots currently offer something close to The Deck's late-afternoon oysters and cocktails. Each one does it from a different height.

Las Brisas is the closest match on price and on what's on the plate. Its weekday menu pairs $3 oysters with cocktails, though the view comes from the cliff top. Splashes runs its Golden Hour every day of the week, which neither of the weekday-only options does. Surf & Sand is also already taking Thanksgiving reservations at Splashes for Nov. 26. The Cliff has the view and the 3–6 p.m. window, but its listed menu does not include a raw bar.

The Register noted The Deck for being "right on the sands" at the bottom of Sleepy Hollow Lane, and none of these three sit at sand level. The Pacific Edge approvals keep room for that kind of seat to return. No reopening date or operator has been announced.

If you own a home near Sleepy Hollow Lane and want to know how a two-year hotel build and a rebuilt oceanfront restaurant down the street affect your property, Marcus Skenderian Real Estate follows projects like Pacific Edge from the Planning Commission dais to the finished building, with an architect's eye for what the plans actually allow. Request a Complimentary Home Valuation, and we'll walk you through it.