Brothers’ dream to build homes on unique Shell Beach property finally coming true
For the past four decades, a large plot of land in Shell Beach has stood empty, seemingly in defiance of the premium neighborhoods that cover most of the developable land in the oceanfront community.
Forty-six years ago, the property running the length of Beachcomber Drive was purchased by Tom and Fred McNeal, two Orange County brothers who fell in love with the site during one of their many trips up and down the California coast.
“One day while driving south, Fred had just passed the Avila Beach turnoff and glanced down from 101 and saw a For Sale sign in a green field,” Tom McNeal said in an email. “He took the next off-ramp and doubled back. He was immediately enthused, and when I drove up with him a few days later to take a look, I understood.”
The McNeal brothers purchased the property in the spring of 1980, with the intention of building their own homes on the blufftop, but life got in the way, as it often does, McNeal said.
“And at some point, it felt like maybe that was never going to happen,” McNeal said. “About every year or two, we would be standing here looking at it, and finally, my wife said, ‘It’s never going to happen, Tom. You need to just stop thinking about it,’ and those were like fighting words.”
Plans for the project got on track over the past five years, but in November, Fred — who had been “instrumental” in the most recent plans — died of pancreatic cancer at 81, leaving Tom, 78, to finish their dream project.
On Tuesday, the protracted planning phase came to an end as McNeal, along with family members and builders from Tricamo Construction, officially broke ground on the Solemar project, a 20-home development with two homes for the McNeal family closest to the ocean.
“In one of the last serious conversations I had with him — because it affects his family as well as ours — he said, ‘I want to see it built, wherever I am,’ so that decided it,” McNeal said.
Solemar project to develop rare undeveloped land in Shell Beach
In built-out Shell Beach, space is always at a premium, making projects of Solemar’s size a rarity in the area, Tricamo Construction owner John Tricamo said.
Featuring eight homesites that can be custom-built to the buyer’s needs and 12 townhomes, the project will span the length of Beachcomber Drive from Shell Beach Road to South Palisades Park, featuring a Spanish colonial design designed by 10 Over Studios that echoes neighboring homes. Two of the eight homesites nearest the ocean will be retained by the McNeal family.
Over the past five years, the project underwent a slew of redesigns, McNeal said. At one point, it was planned as a pocket neighborhood, which would feature homes arranged around a community space, though that approach was dropped after pushback from neighbors, he said.
The version that will kick off construction by the end of the week will be built in phases, with townhomes closest to Shell Beach Road and custom homesites clustered along Beachcomber Drive, Tricamo said.
Though the individual units will be relatively large — between 3,200 and 4,000 square feet for custom homes and around 2,200 square feet for the townhomes — the project will make good use of the narrow Beachcomber Drive property with a higher-density approach, Tricamo said.
“There’s homes all over (the project site), but there’s also going to be a lot of landscape features and flat work, and so it won’t be too dense-looking,” Tricamo said. “It’s gonna feel pretty well laid onto the site.”
Tricamo said its uncommon to see developments sit empty for extended periods of time, particularly in high-value communities such as Shell Beach.
“Just by simple metrics, this has been the longest one, but I actually think that in a lot of ways, this represents the kind of infill that we need to catch up,” Tricamo said. “I think that this is a really unique opportunity that we’re very thankful for.”
First homes may become available next summer
Realtor Lindsey Harn, whose company represents the Solemar project, said more information about reserving homesites will be available within the next three months, with townhomes soon to follow.
She said pricing information will be available within around six months.
Tricamo said his company planned to start clearing foliage from the Shell Beach Road end of the site in a matter of days, and will start street work next week, which will eventually include new sidewalks on both sides of Shell Beach Road and an extension of the parkway that runs through South Palisades Park on the ocean end of the property.
Utilities and pad lots will be finished by the end of the year, and some homes may be available for sale by next summer, Tricamo said.
For McNeal, seeing construction finally get underway on Beachcomber Drive is a bittersweet end to a process he’s been involved in since he and his brother stumbled across the property in their youth.
“I couldn’t be more excited, but also couldn’t be more regretful that my brother’s not standing here right now to do this too,” McNeal said. “It’s a really good project, so I think it’s gonna make a lot of people happy when it’s done.”
This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 9:00 AM.
