Hotel Laguna reopens after clash between rival security guards

The historic Hotel Laguna has reopened after a showdown of fisticuffs by rival private security guards during a legal dispute between the property’s operator and investors.

Laguna Beach officials allowed the 93-room beachfront hotel and the nearby 14 West hotel to reopen after ordering them shut down last week because of the clash between security guards, the Orange County Register reported.

Laguna Beach police officers were called to the Hotel Laguna at 425 South Coast Highway last week for a 20-person physical altercation in the lobby between armed guards from two private security firms.

Police were also called to 14 West at 690 South Coast Highway, where more arguing and fights occurred. 

The guards had faced off as part of an ongoing civil dispute over the operation and management of the hotel properties, city officials said. City Manager Shohreh Dupuis ordered the two properties closed out of concern for public safety.

“Police determined a security guard struck an opposing security guard and made an arrest,” Dupuis said in a statement. “As both security teams were armed, police responded accordingly.”

Local real estate developer Mo Honarkar and his Laguna Beach Company, which have been renovating the 100-year-old Hotel Laguna, and an investor group, Continuum Analytics, based in Newport Beach, have been in a civil dispute over control of the properties since March.

In addition to the two hotels, the argument over ownership includes at least four other Laguna Beach properties.

On Friday, city officials allowed Continuum Analytics to reopen the two properties after a judge issued a temporary restraining order on its behalf until the next court hearing on May 30.

City officials reached an agreement with the investor group for reopening with several requirements, including that security on-site at both properties must be unarmed, and a determination that the “public health and safety threat no longer exists,” officials said.

“Once the imminent threat was over, it made no sense for the city to continue the closure,” City Attorney Phil Kohn said. “We’ll continue to monitor things as needed.”

Kohn said there has been a dispute between the operator of the properties and the investor group, leaving the city unsure which entity is in charge. The Mission Revival Hotel Laguna, once popular with Hollywood celebrities, is undergoing a renovation and reopened its ground floor with a restaurant in 2021.

E.W. Merritt Farms, based in Porterville, owns the properties, but leases out operations to Honarkar.

Isaac Zfaty, an attorney representing local real estate developer Mo Honarkar and the Laguna Beach Company, which inked a 99-year lease agreement with Merritt Farms in 2019, told the Register they continue to “maintain ownership in Hotel Laguna, 14 West, and various other local properties.”

But Marc Cohen, an attorney for the Continuum Analytics investor group, said it had control of the properties since March and described the security guard clash as a failed takeover attempt by Honarkar.

— Dana Bartholomew