Twenty years in the making, Marina’s Promenade development is finally coming to life.

Sara Rubin here, just after taking a hard-hat tour of Monterey County’s newest neighborhood. The Promenade in Marina, an idea 20-plus years in the making, finally exists in three dimensions. There’s the movie theater at one end—for years, an island floating all alone in a parking lot, now part of a partly built neighborhood—and the empty building at the other end where a Trader Joe’s will go. 

In between are a mix of retail spaces and 84 condos the developer, Shea Homes, is calling “Rooftops.” Construction is still underway, but Shea Homes expects they will be move-in-ready by mid-November. And joined by three other adjacent neighborhoods set to open by early 2025, there will be 407 new units total. 

It’s a mini city unto itself, where until recently there was just cracking asphalt and sand. It’s a vision that Don Hofer, vice president at Shea Homes, has been cultivating and describing on paper for 20 years—finally, it exists. “This is the Promenade,” he says, rounding the bend and looking down a future street. It’s still perhaps hard to envision—it will have people, shops, plants—but Hofer sees it once it is inhabited and alive. “We wanted to really create place,” he says, “rooted in experiences akin to the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty or Cannery Row—you get an image in your mind that can get an almost emotional response.” 

I think it’s quite a stretch to liken The Dunes (the name of the development more broadly) to the Statue of Liberty, but it is impressive. That’s of course in part because I’ve watched as these new units sprang up out of nothing, something staff writer Celia Jiménez has reported on.

It’s also because the Rooftops are luxury units, with impressive amenities. The architecture is for a post-pandemic time, with ample home office nooks. There are fabulous rooftop decks that offer views of the Monterey Bay, designed to support hot tubs and big outdoor parties. There are big, open kitchens designed to entertain. Most are spread out on multiple floors—residents must be physically agile—and they are spacious, up to 2,740 square feet.

Of course, this all comes at a price. The Rooftop units we toured are listed for $1.1 million to $1.48 million. The Shea team reports that so far, about 50 percent of buyers are local; 40 percent are from the Bay Area, and another 10 percent from elsewhere. (Buyers of live-work spaces, with adjacent retail units, so far include an attorney and a fitness instructor.)

This urban environment, within walking distance of the beach, is going to be for a certain class of people. Nearby, a 140-apartment complex called Terracina, designated for low-income and very-low-income tenants, is set to open on Oct. 10. 

While not everyone will be able to afford to live at the Promenade, everyone will be able to go there; a park is still in progress, and a public courtyard area next to the Brass Tap will break ground as soon as next week. 

For now, as construction continues, there’s a webcam to see the progress underway as The Dunes transforms from idea to shopping center to reality as a mixed-use neighborhood.