The Resort at Pelican Hill starts the main phase of its renovation on Monday, November 2, 2026. It is preparing to reopen as the world's first St. Regis Estate in fall 2027. Pelican Grill, Andrea, the Coliseum Pool and Grill, and the Main Estate spa will close for months at a time, some for most of a year. For the next several months, the main way a local can get a table or a pool chair is to book a spa treatment.
The resort calls this period "a more intimate, boutique resort experience centered around the Villa Clubhouse." For anyone who lives a few minutes up Newport Coast Drive, that means the resort's center moves to the Villa Clubhouse. Until it returns, the habits built around the Main Estate need new routes. Some of those routes are easy to miss.
The Villa Clubhouse opens to locals through the spa
During the renovation, the Villa Clubhouse is the resort's all-day restaurant. It serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, and it has ocean views with indoor and outdoor seating. The clubhouse and its pool are listed as amenities for Villa and Bungalow guests. The exception for locals is in the spa section of the resort's Next Chapter page. While the Main Estate spa is under renovation, many of its signature services move to The Spa at North Villas. That spa is open to locals daily from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and offers massages, facials, salon services, co-ed lounges and a boutique. "Locals who reserve a spa service may access the Villa Clubhouse including dining and the Villa Pool, based on availability."
So a facial booked for late morning can also cover a Villa Pool afternoon and an early dinner on the clubhouse terrace. The clubhouse hours set the limits of that day:
| Villa Clubhouse service | Hours |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., Monday to Friday |
| Lunch | 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Monday to Friday |
| Weekend brunch | 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday |
| Dinner | 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., daily |
| Villa Pool food and beverage | 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., daily |
Dinner ends at 8:00 p.m., well before the late-evening hours locals may associate with the bar at Pelican Grill. Dinner reservations are offered to resort guests, and breakfast, lunch and weekend brunch are first come, first served. Access always depends on "based on availability," so a busy holiday week could mean a spa day without a lunch table.
Parking for spa visits is simple. Locals visiting The Spa at North Villas valet at the Villa Clubhouse for free, and a shuttle takes them to the spa. The Villa Clubhouse has its own refresh scheduled from September 2027 to January 2028, after most of the Main Estate has reopened.
The golf course reopens as the restaurants close
The golf club runs on the opposite schedule. As the dining rooms close, Pelican Hill Golf Club comes back to full strength after a multi-phase restoration. The resort chose Brian Curley of Curley-Wagner Golf Design to lead the restoration, with McDonald & Sons building it, according to a Pelican Hill release from October 2025. The Ocean South Course reopened in July 2026.
The Ocean North Course has been closed on holes 1 through 3 and 13 through 18 since August 10. Holes 4 through 12 have stayed open as a nine-hole loop, and that arrangement runs through November 2. The resort's FAQ says the North Course will "fully re-open early November 2026." The golf booking page uses a looser "late fall 2026," so the exact first day of full 18-hole play on the North Course may move.
Locals do not need a room or a spa booking to play. The tee-time page has a separate General Public booking route, separate from Pelican Hill Gold Members, and it notes that golf bookings are unrelated to Marriott Bonvoy tiers. Caffè 2 is also on the 2027 enhancement list. For now, it still appears on the resort's renovation-period page as the stop before or after a round, with coffee, light breakfast and lunch, and an outdoor grill.
This winter, then, a round on both restored courses is the easiest Pelican Hill visit for a local, and a long dinner at Andrea is not available at all.
Two holiday meals stay open to locals
The holiday calendar Marriott currently lists for Pelican Hill is built around the Villa Clubhouse, and most of it is for resort guests. Marriott's seasonal events page for the resort lists the tree lighting and Champagne sabrage on the Villa Clubhouse terrace as "complimentary to resort guests." It runs November 27–28, December 4–5, December 11–12, December 18–19, and December 23 through January 2. Holiday specials at the Villa Clubhouse on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve are listed as "only available for resort guests."
Two meals on the same page are open to locals:
- Thanksgiving at Mar Vista. A brunch buffet with carving stations for roast turkey, prime rib and salmon, plus fresh seafood and sushi, a children's buffet, live entertainment and family activities. The page labels it "available for locals and resort guests."
- Christmas Day Caviar Brunch Buffet. Glazed ham, prime rib and New Zealand snapper at the carving stations, plus caviar, seafood and live entertainment. The page says "Available for locals and guests."
Both take reservations through OpenTable from the Marriott page. One detail needs checking before you count on a Thanksgiving table. The resort's own timeline puts "Meeting Spaces & Mar Vista" under enhancement from November 2026 to April 2027, and it says events continue "in designated spaces away from active work." When you book, ask which room is hosting the brunch.
When each venue returns
Pelican Hill marks every date on its timeline as "subject to change." Here is the posted reopening order, from first to last:
- Ocean North Course, early November 2026. Full reopening, per the resort FAQ.
- Bella Vista Pool, late December 2026 to January 2027. Resurfaced, with new furnishings.
- Main Estate Fitness Center, January 2027.
- Coliseum Pool, late February to March 2027. The FAQ says late February and the timeline says March. It will reopen with limited food service from noon to 5:00 p.m.
- Pelican Grill, Main Estate lobby and Caffè Allegra, May 2027. Pelican Grill's bar and private dining room get an interior refresh, and the reopening "will introduce new menu offerings alongside many longtime guest favorites." The former Allegra retail space becomes a European-style caffè with a curated market next to it.
- The Spa, Coliseum restaurant, and the new Signature Lounge and Library, June 2027. The Coliseum restaurant adds a redesigned terrace, new stone flooring and a private dining room. The Great Room will add regular Afternoon Tea.
- The new restaurant in Andrea's space, October 2027. Work in Andrea started in September 2026. It will reopen in mid-October 2027 "with a new name and a brand-new concept" created with a chef the resort describes as "celebrated" but has not yet named.
Andrea comes back last, about the same time as the St. Regis debut. Pelican Grill returns about five months earlier. That leaves a window from May to October 2027 when the grill and the Coliseum restaurant are back but the property's main dinner room is still closed.
Why the resort is changing
The Irvine Company still owns Pelican Hill. Marriott International took over day-to-day management on July 1, 2024. On December 3, 2025, Marriott announced St. Regis Estates as a new tier within the brand, with Pelican Hill as the first property. Newport Beach Independent reported in October 2025 that the refresh is meant to modernize interiors while keeping the Palladian architecture. The resort's FAQ says guest-favorite layouts will stay the same and that the work focuses on interiors and finishes. Active construction is limited to Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
For locals, Pelican Hill's rooms will look familiar when they return, and most of the work happens during weekday business hours. Weekend brunch at the Villa Clubhouse and a Saturday tee time on the restored courses both fall outside those hours.
The resort's own renovation-period plan sends guests down the hill for more choices. Its free daily shuttle, 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., runs to Crystal Cove Shopping Center and Fashion Island. At Crystal Cove Shopping Center, Irvine Company's directory lists Bacio di Latte as "Coming Soon" at 7922 East Pacific Coast Highway.
When the St. Regis Estate opens in 2027, the homes closest to it will be near a newly repositioned resort, and that changes how buyers see them. If you own nearby and want to understand how a debut like this could affect your property's value, Charlie Price Group follows Newport Coast through each stage of the renovation and can share a private read on what it means for your home. Receive Exclusive Listings, and hear about it first.
