Esperanza at Asbury Park still needs final approval of a developer's agreement between the city and Metro Homes, which is expected to happen shortly, according to Metro Homes. Company officials are planning to schedule an official groundbreaking in late spring, with sales of the project's studio and one- to four-bedroom units slated to begin this summer. Project costs have not been released.

Paul Fried, a principal of the Hoboken, NJ-based developer, says the firm believes the project will be "the centerpiece for the revitalization of the city's beachfront. The planning board has clearly expressed its support for this project."

Esperanza will consist of two residential towers connected by three stories of parking and ground-floor retail space. The design concept is based on "the environmental influences of the oceanfront location," says Dean Marchetto of Dean Marchetto Architects, also of Hoboken.

The larger Oceanfront Asbury redevelopment is being carried out under the aegis of the locally based master developer, Asbury Partners, headed by COO Larry Fishman. Altogether, the effort will bring about $1 billion of mixed-use development, much of it residential and retail, to this city, with several different developers involved in its various components.

And Metro Homes may not be done here. According to Fried, his firm has four additional proposals in the works that could add up to a total of more than 700 residential units.