Several new developments in Coral Gables are hoping to turn its housing market around.

After experiencing the side effects of the recession, a recent string of luxury and office developments in Coral Gables  have many residents thinking that the affluent area is emerging from the downturn stronger than ever.

Totaling $250 million in investments and 2 million square feet of space, the seven planned projects are holdovers from the housing bubble. They include: Gables Ponce Apartments, a 250-unit complex that developer Gables Residential has been attempting to finance for four years; Old Spanish Village, a victim of the recession whose 700,000 square feet of townhomes and retail space was purchased by another developer; and 396 Alhambra, a $140 million, 15-story property that will offer office and retail space and is scheduled to open before the end of 2011.

In a Miami Herald report on the developments, Robert Behar, whose architecture firm is designing a luxury apartment near the Village at Merrick park, said Coral Gables was the ideal spot for new real estate.

“Coral Gables has always preserved its value better than 99 percent of the other municipalities in Miami-Dade,” Behar said. “These investors are looking at the Gables as the first and primary location to start development.”

Beyond the developments themselves, considerable potential also exists in the ripple effect that such properties could have on the Coral Gables area. Numerous restaurants, shops and other economic activity would emerge in surrounding areas with more residential building. Many, including Mayor Jim Cason, are pleased with this news.

“A lot of this stuff started years and years ago,” Cason said, also to the Miami Herald. “Then our real estate values went down. This year they’ve gone back up.”