People from around the world are coming to Columbus Circle, a location that was blighted for 20 years and at one point was discussed as a possible home for a Kmart and a Sports Authority. Today it is home to a mixed-use complex where retail sales are exceeding $1,200 a foot and residential condominiums sell for prices in excess of $2,700 a square foot. It is the 3.45-acre, 2.8 million-square-foot Time Warner Center, which one of its developers, Jeffrey Blau of the Related Companies, calls “the Rockefeller Center of the 21st century.”

The Time Warner Center celebrated its second anniversary on February 4. Developed by Apollo Real Estate Advisors and the Related Companies, it is comprised of five condominium components with 1.1 million square feet of office space, most of which is owned by Time Warner. The residential component consists of 191 luxury condominiums. One of the condominiums is home to Jazz at Lincoln Center and owned by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Another component includes a 504-car parking garage operated by Central Parking, a 40,000-square-foot Equinox Health Club, and the 347,000-square-foot Shops at Columbus Circle, which houses a 57,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market and restaurants 50.5% owned by the center’s developers, and 49.5% owned by the MacFarlane Partners through a joint venture with the California Employees’ Retirement System.The final condominium is the 252-room Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 50% owned by the developers and 50% by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

The senior partner at Apollo Real Estate Advisors, Lee Neibart said, “Every component of the center is exceeding expectations.” The retail is fueled by Whole Foods, and the hotel is far exceeding expectations. The chairman of Global Brokerage Resources at CB Richard Ellis, Stephen Siegel, said, “The center has changed the face of New York forever.”

The president of Swig Equities, Kent Swig – who last year in partnership with YL Real Estate Developers and Serge Hoyda purchased the Sheffield, a residential building less than two blocks from the center – said, “The center has had the greatest influence in changing an area in the past 20 years. It has actually made Columbus Circle a circle, and brought residential, retail, and hospitality. The center is the gateway to the Upper West Side from Midtown west. Today, the region on West 57th and Eighth Avenue is a better location at West 57th and Avenue of the Americas.” The center energized the neighborhood resulted in a massive number of new residential and retail developments.

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Across from the center, on the former site of the Mayflower Hotel and adjacent lot, a joint venture of Zeckendorf Development, Goldman Sachs Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, and an affiliate of Global Holdings are developing 15 Central Park West. The development will include 43-story and 23-story buildings with 202 units of condominium apartments between 61st and 62nd streets. On the Broadway side of the building, four floors of retail will rise. According to the trade, residential condominiums are selling at prices of more than $3,500 a square foot.

Last month, Brack Capital and Continental Equities received a building permit to start the foundation work for the Element, a 34-story glass condo tower with 198 homes. The tower will be rising on 59th Street between West End and Amsterdam avenues. Brack Capital is also involved in the conversion of two buildings on the Upper West Side. They include the conversion into residential condominiums of the classic pre-war rental building at 230 Riverside Drive and the 16-story Hotel Olcott at 27 W. 72nd St., a half block from Central Park.

The hospitality industry in the area is also booming. According to the trade, occupancy and average room rates have exceeded expectations at the Mandarin Oriental and the Hudson Hotel, which is across the street from the Time Warner Center. This summer, the Pomeranc family, which owns the Thompson Hotels, expect to complete the renovation of 6 Columbus Circle, a 90-room suite hotel across the street from the center. And last month, Madison Equities announced plans to break ground this summer for a 500-room hotel on West 55th Street and Eighth Avenue. The hotel will be next to the 46-story tower that sits atop the Hearst Magazine Building, which was built in 1928.

Later this year, the first owners are expected to move into the Hudson, an 18-story, mixed-use building at 225 W. 60th St. between West End and Amsterdam avenues. There will be 100 condominiums on the fourth to 19th floors of the tower. The first five floors will provide student housing for Lander College for Women, of Touro College.

Construction has begun on the site of the former Gasteria gas station on West End Avenue between 59th and 60th streets. On this site, Apollo is planning to construct a residential condominium building of approximately 270 units.

The first residents are expected to move in this June to a senior affordable housing rental building on the other side of the street at 33 West End Ave. The 13-story building will provide 120 seniors with affordable large studio apartments. Across from this building, a 25-story residential tower is rising on a site known as the West 61st Street apartments. A total of 211 rental units will be available at favorable rents. Twenty percent of the units, or 43 units, will be available to families earning 50% or less than the area’s median income, which last year was $62,800. A total of 27% of the units, or 57 apartments, will go to individuals or families earning no more than 165% of the area median income. A total of 110 units, or 53% of the apartments, will be offered to tenants at market rates.

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Last November, Hudson Waterfront Associates, along with Donald Trump as a limited partner, sold three residential rental buildings and approximately 14.3 acres of undeveloped land between 59th and 65th streets on the West Side rail yard to a joint venture of Gary Barnett’s Extell Development Company and the Washington-based Carlyle Group. The joint venture is building the Avery, a 30-story condominium at Riverside Boulevard and 65th Street. On the Upper West Side, Extell is developing Ariel East, a 37-story, 64-unit tower at 2628 Broadway and Ariel West, a 31-story, 73-unit tower at 245 W. 99th St., and 2633 Broadway.

The Ariel West site was formerly occupied by a Gristede’s store and was owned by the chairman of the Red Apple Companies, John Catsimatidis. Mr. Catsimatidis purchased the site about 20 years ago for $400,000 and sold the site last year to Extell for about $35 million. Mr. Catsimatidis and a partner own an office building at 1790 Broadway, across from the Time Warner Center. Mr. Catsimatidis told this reporter that they are marketing the site to a developer who might be willing to pay $1,200 a square foot for the site and convert the property into a residential condominium.

In December, West End Enterprises, an affiliate of LHL Realty, made a presentation to the land use committee of Community Board 7. The developer is planning to construct a residential development at 229-251 W. 60th St. and 218-240 W. 61st St. The developer plans to construct 300 market-rate rental apartments in two towers, one 27 stories high and another of 17 stories. Additionally, the developer would be constructing a nine-story tower with 41 luxury condominium apartments.

Numerous projects are being planned on the Upper West Side and close to the Time Warner Center. Properties that include office buildings, residential rental apartment houses, and former hotels are planned to be converted into residential condominiums. This area, as well as all of Manhattan, is emerging in the 21st century.

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and senior vice president at First American Title Insurance Company of New York. He can be reached at mstoler@firstam.com.