The long-dormant Starlite Drive-In site on Rosemead Boulevard is officially back in play, with KB Home moving ahead on roughly 200 three-story detached and attached homes. This month, the builder and South El Monte officials rolled out a restored 75-year-old drive-in marquee to serve as the development’s entrance monument. Model homes and a sales office are now open while crews keep pushing grading and foundation work across the property.
As reported by Urbanize LA, KB Home and city leaders marked the marquee’s restoration at a small ceremony earlier this month and confirmed that construction is underway at 2540 Rosemead Boulevard. The builder acquired the roughly 13.5-acre parcel in 2023, and the Los Angeles Business Journal reported the purchase price at about $24 million. Plans for the Starlite project include two-, three- and four-bedroom layouts and shared recreation spaces such as a pool and community building.
KB Home is branding the project as Astaire and Harlow at Starlite, with the company touting ENERGY STAR-certified homes and on-site amenities. In a company press release, KB Home said pricing begins from the $720,000s, and the builder’s sales pages show available homesites in the roughly $700,000 to $900,000 range on KB Home. Model homes are open at the sales office on Academy Street for both walk-in visits and private tours.
What The Approvals Covered
Per the City of South El Monte’s planning packet (City of South El Monte), the Starlite Specific Plan, a General Plan amendment and a zone change were adopted to permit roughly 207 units on the site, and staff prepared a Master Affordable Housing Covenant and density-bonus agreement for council review. The city’s agenda and environmental documents lay out the entitlement history, mitigation measures and design parameters that cleared the way for the former swap-meet parcel to be rezoned for housing. Those records show the development shifted zoning from commercial and manufacturing to multi-family residential as part of the Specific Plan adoption.
Heritage Preserved
The restored marquee is the last tangible remnant of the old Starlite Drive-In and is being positioned as the new community’s entrance, a move local coverage says keeps a visible piece of neighborhood memory on the street. Urbanize LA notes the site later became home to the Starlite swap meet, which many longtime residents remember as a weekend fixture. KB Home and city officials say the marquee will stay put while home construction continues around it.
Builder’s Footprint And Corporate Move
KB Home said it will keep operating in California even after announcing plans to relocate its corporate headquarters to the Phoenix metro area, where the company expects to establish offices at Hayden Ferry Lakeside in Tempe starting in spring 2027. The corporate announcement ran via PR Newswire, and wider business coverage noted that KB Home will retain a significant California operating presence. For neighbors, that means the local KB Home division remains the on-the-ground builder for Starlite even as corporate functions shift east.
Buying, Affordability And What’s Next
The city’s housing page and project materials spell out an affordable-homeownership component and a city-administered waitlist for eligible buyers, reflecting a covenant and density-bonus commitments tied to the project (City of South El Monte). South El Monte’s housing and planning files describe how the city and developer will monitor compliance with the affordable-housing agreement. Prospective buyers can review the city’s project documents online and contact the KB Home sales office for appointments.
