Starlite (Astaire / Harlow)

KB Home is building 207 homes on the site of the old Starlite Drive-In in South El Monte. The project replaces a former drive-in and swap meet with a gated community of detached houses and townhomes. The city approved the rezoning in 2022, KB Home bought the land in 2023, and construction has been under way since a groundbreaking that fall. Sales opened in March 2025, and models are open now.

What's being built

The 12.3-acre site is split between 169 single-family detached homes, sold under the name Astaire, and 38 attached townhomes, sold as Harlow. Pricing started in the $720,000s when sales launched. The community is gated and shares about 9,000 square feet of recreation space: a pool, a pool deck, and a recreation building, plus walking paths.

KTGY designed the Starlite Specific Plan that governs the project. Elevations are in that plan set, filed with the city's environmental review; KB Home's own grand-opening release and construction-progress coverage carry current photos of the site.

As part of the approval, two of the homes, 1,923-square-foot houses at 2542 Avalon Street, are reserved for moderate-income buyers under the city's Master Affordable Housing Covenant. The city opened a lottery for those two homes in August 2026.

How it got entitled

South El Monte rezoned the site from heavy commercial (C-M) to multifamily residential (R-3) in April 2022, adopting a Specific Plan and a General Plan Amendment alongside it. The city reviewed the project under a Mitigated Negative Declaration, a step below a full environmental impact report used when a project's effects can be reduced to an insignificant level with conditions, and filed its Notice of Determination that same month.

KB Home didn't buy the land until over a year later. The entitlements were already in place when it closed on the roughly 13.5-acre site for $24 million in August 2023.

Where construction stands

A groundbreaking ceremony followed in September 2023. By May 2026, KB Home and the city had restored the original 1950s Starlite Drive-In marquee as the project's entrance monument, a nod to the site's history, while grading and foundation work continued elsewhere on the property. Sales had opened a year earlier, and models were open as of the most recent update.

Why this one matters

Starlite is one of the larger single development sites in South El Monte to convert from commercial to housing, and it shows how a drive-in and swap meet parcel can pencil out as 207 for-sale homes once the zoning allows it. For a city with little vacant land, redeveloping an underused commercial site like this one is a template other owners nearby may watch.