Central Park West is back. The 43-acre former industrial site near Jamboree Road and the San Diego Freeway (405) will host a grand opening for three new low-rise condominium neighborhoods on April 27. The three neighborhoods – all with New York-themed names to tie into the Central Park concept – are Madison, Soho and Manhattan.
To recall Central Park’s history: The site was purchased by Lennar Corporation for a reported $100 million in 2004 and planned as an urban, master-planned village with an eventual 1,380 low-rise condominium homes around a two-acre park, including 240 units in two high-rise towers called Astoria. A neighborhood retail center and a low-rise office complex were part of the plans.
But Central Park West opened right into the mid-’90s recession. So slow were sales of residential units, that in late 2007 Lennar actually moth-balled the project – midway through construction.
In 2010, with some light showing at the end of the residential sales tunnel, Lennar introduced Lennox, which is still selling in the $597,000 to $931,000 range. The high-rise Astoria towers, opened in 2009, were converted from for-sale condos to for-rent apartments.
Now Lennar is introducing its three new neighborhoods with units from 1,300 to 2,300 square feet and from one bedroom and one-and-one-half baths to three bedrooms with three-and-one-half baths.
Although the urban concept for Central Park West is competing with more conventional residential projects, onlookers are cheering for the project’s success as the residential demand blossoms.
