A 400-unit luxury apartment community in Oxnard’s RiverPark development has been purchased for $81.5 million by three L.A. area firms.

Los Angeles-based Urban Partners LLC and Beverly Hills-based Capri Capital Partners and Kennedy Wilson purchased Serenade, a “resort-style community” within RiverPark, Oxnard’s proposed master-planned development.

“Our focus has been on supply constrained, infill West Coast markets and this acquisition is a perfect fit for our strategy,” Robert Hart, president and CEO of Kennedy Wilson Multifamily Management Group, said in a release, noting that Ventura County’s Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources, or SOAR, laws make future development on the scale of RiverPark unlikely for the next 18 years.

“Serenade is an institutional quality, well designed core asset that is located in a market with significant barriers to entry and will be complimentary to the other investments made within our Urban Fund to-date,” Kenneth Lombard, president of Capri Urban Investors and partner at Capri Capital Partners, said in a release.

Serenade includes 14 residential buildings, a fitness center, a pool and spa, and a 1.3 acre-public park.

RiverPark, a 702-acre master planned commercial and residential project, came online soon after the economy tanked. The retail portion of the development, known as The Collection at RiverPark, was set to open in 2008. That date was pushed back to 2009, and then to Spring 2010, and then Fall 2010. Shea Properties spokeswoman Julie Ball told the Business Times in April that the new target date is fall 2011.

Whole Foods, Target, REI and Century Theatres are among the tenants who have announced their intentions to move into RiverPark. But repeated delays have had many observers wondering if the stores will ever open.

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