MOORPARK : Work May Resume on Condominiums

Moorpark residents may finally be relieved of the eyesore created by a large downtown condominium development that has been sitting unfinished for more than 18 months.

St. Charles Place, the 27-unit luxury complex at Los Angeles Avenue and Spring Road, may soon have new owners to finish it, said Jackie Palmquist, vice president at Hawthorne Savings & Loan in Hawthorne, which owns the building.

Construction on the project, which is for sale at $3.1 million, stopped about the beginning of 1990 after the developer, Ranchview Partners, ran into legal and financial problems.

The Thousand Oaks-based partnership has since filed for reorganization under Chapter 11.

Hawthorne Savings foreclosed on the complex on May 8 and put it on the market shortly afterward, Palmquist said. The savings and loan has received at least three bids, including a possible cash offer.

The money that new owners will have to spend to finish the project, including replacing any weather-damaged materials, will be “far less than a million,” Palmquist said.

Once completed, the complex’s luxury two- and three-bedroom units, which range in size from 1,300 to 1,400 square feet, should sell for at least $175,000, she said.