One such executive is George T. DeVries, co-founder and chief executive of American Specialty Health, a privately held health services organization with $260 million in annual sales and 1,200 employees. This year he is moving his company’s headquarters from San Diego to 73,000 square feet of leased space in a new office building in the Meridian corridor.

Mr. DeVries was born in Iowa and attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana, a college prep boarding school.

“It makes immense sense for the logic and evolution of our company,” he said about the move. “Our business costs in Carmel are lower. Our employees like the move. Carmel has done a good job with its redevelopment. It’s a good place to live. Our employees are able to afford homes close to our new office, something they can’t do now.”

Image James Brainard, inside the Palladium. He was first elected mayor in 1995. Credit... A. J. Mast for The New York Times

Buoyed by local support for the arts district, Carmel pursued the second central city redevelopment area, called City Center, which is being constructed in phases. The 80-acre center, like the arts district, is intended to mix residential, office, retail and entertainment spaces in close enough proximity to encourage walking. Parking is beneath, or in decks hidden by office and residential buildings.

City Center’s anchors are the two publicly financed buildings of the Center for the Performing Arts. The larger of the two is a 1,600-seat, $130 million concert hall, the Palladium, a 21st-century version of Carnegie Hall with impressive lighting, temperature controls, acoustic design and tiers of seating. The second building, constructed at a cost of $47.5 million, houses a 500-seat theater, a 150-seat studio theater, offices and a parking deck. Both buildings opened in 2010.

The newest buildings in City Center, according to city records, are Pedcor’s $10 million, 42,000-square-foot residential building with first-floor retail and commercial space, and a $7 million, 40,000-square-foot residential building that also will house the corporate offices of Anderson Birkla, a real estate investment company that is developing the project. Both are expected to be completed by the end of the year.