New phase of major SLO County apartment complex underway after years of delays
For more than 20 years, a project site on the north end of Atascadero’s busiest street has been in an on-and-off state of development — but after years of delays, some of the housing is now online and more is on the way.
Emerald Ridge Apartments, a 208-home apartment complex on El Camino Real from developer The Laughlin Company, has weathered two major economic events that have reshaped the project and its end goals.
In the early 2000s, The Laughlin Co. CEO Peter Laughlin was looking at developing the project site south of Del Rio Road as a 132-unit condominium complex.
The project even had a buyer, but the recession in 2007 caused the buyer to pull out of the deal, he said. When the Great Recession hit, he said he was forced to reevaluate and delay the project, eventually bringing the current 208-unit apartment complex to the city for approval in 2016.
The revised project, planned for 2535, 2605 and 2705 El Camino Real was concieved as three phases: A 36-unit initial phase, a 72-unit second phase and a 100-unit final phase that will be leased up as they become available, Laughlin said.
Then, not long after breaking ground on the first phase in late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, followed by two years of hyperinflation in the building and development industry that forced Laughlin to once again reevaluate, delaying the end date for all three phases from 2024 to nearly 2030, he said.
The first phase of 36 units at 2535 El Camino Real was finished in January 2022 and is nearly full with three two-bedroom apartments still available for lease from $2,650 to $3,250 a month.
Now, after numerous delays, development is underway on the second of the three planned phases, with the third still to come depending on how the first two phases perform, Laughlin said.
“It was a period of uncertainty, and developers like certainty,” Laughlin said. “We like to see rates leveling off or trending downwards, because it’s very expensive to build in California — to build anything really nice — and we build really nice projects that are long-term legacy-type projects for our family business.”
Project moving forward following delays
At 2.86 acres and 72 units, the second phase is double the lot size of the first phase in both acreage and unit count, according to the project’s 2016 staff report.
The second phase of construction kicked off in April 2025 and is on track to be complete in the first quarter of 2027, bringing the total number of units to 108, he said.
A pool, spa, gym, clubhouse and parking spaces for the new units are currently under construction along with the apartments, Laughlin said.
Units come furnished with Shaker-style cabinetry and fixtures, in-unit washers and dryers, private balconies and energy-efficient appliances, according to Emerald Ridge’s website.
Rents in the next phase will range from $2,500 for a two-bedroom, one-bath, to $3,200 for three-bedroom, two-bath townhomes, Laughlin said.
100 more units to come ‘if the market grows’
Laughlin said while the current building market is still costly, the inflation and heightened uncertainty of the post-pandemic years changed his company’s approach to construction and property management.
Due to the shifting market conditions, The Laughlin Co. switched from using general contractors to an owner-builder model, in which Laughlin Co. employees manage the construction rather than a third party, he said.
The breaks in the current iteration of the project forced by the pandemic also gave the company time to build 10 high-end luxury apartments known as Emerald Court, Laughlin said.
Laughlin said that reflects the ways that development in Atascadero has changed over the past few years, with interest turning to infill projects that maximize density vs. large-lot developments such as Emerald Ridge.
He said the north end of Atascadero has “really taken off,” as higher-end housing, hotels and businesses have sprouted up along El Camino Real, and he was excited to bring the second phase of units to the market.
“We’re really happy to be in this part of the market,” Laughlin said. “We actually have most of the high-density land in this part of Atascadero, so we have a lot of building to do for many, many, many years, in addition to the Emerald Ridge community.”
The start of construction on the final 100 units will depend on how the 72 new units perform, with all construction wrapping up around 2030.
“If the market grows and there’s demand, we’ll pull the trigger on it,” Laughlin said. “When we finish (the second phase) in first quarter of 2027, we will evaluate how things are, and we’ll probably start up maybe a year later.”
