It was opening day at Petco Park yesterday, which meant an adrenaline rush for the Padres, a this-is-our-year moment for the fans : and another marketing opportunity for anxious developers.

The signs were everywhere on the outskirts of the East Village ballpark.

"New condos for sale" announced a large banner hanging on Park Terrace, a brand-new high-rise hovering beyond the center-field fence.

At 7th Avenue and K Street, an advertisement for The Legend : a still-under-construction residential tower : gushed about "condo living at the ballpark."

A block over, at 7th and J, was a poster for a planned 36-story luxury high-rise called Condominium Tower. The ad offered the chance to buy into a building "overlooking Padres Petco Park."

It's no secret that the real estate market is flat in San Diego : especially in the downtown area, in part because so many buildings went up in such a hurry.

This is especially true in the East Village, where no fewer than a dozen commercial and residential projects are under construction within two blocks of the Padres' home field.

With all this competition, every developer near Petco Park is trying to separate itself from the crowd. The Legend, a 23-story tower where 60 of the 178 units remain unsold, is touting its seventh-floor lounge that overlooks the baseball field. The lounge will be open to residents and their guests.

The Icon, a 24-story building that sits on 10th Avenue across from the ballpark complex, brags of its rooftop "stadium," where up to 60 residents and their guests can drink beverages and watch the game. A sales manager for the building : where condos range from $299,000 to $1 million : says about 20 percent of the 316 residential units haven't been sold yet.

The downtown developers need every edge they can get. San Diego real estate consultant Gary London cites "a blanket slowdown" in the downtown market : "probably the only over-built market in the entire San Diego region."

"There's too much inventory under construction," London said.

People who've already bought units tend to focus on the long term, hoping their condos will eventually become as iconic as the apartments and lofts surrounding Chicago's historic Wrigley Field.

Sal Rivera, a television journalist, and his wife, Rose, recently bought a condo with a balcony overlooking Petco's center field. "If we were going to turn around and sell tomorrow, then we'd be in trouble," Rivera said. "But otherwise, we're fine."

Many developers are hoping the 2007 baseball season will reintroduce the public to the East Village, where the spate of construction projects has reconfigured the skyline and altered the neighborhood in the six months since the Padres last played at home.

"When the season gets going, people get reconnected with downtown," said Derek Danziger, spokesman for the Centre City Development Corporation.

Doug Wilson, developer of The Mark, a 244-unit residential building two blocks north of Petco, acknowledged that half of the units had yet to be sold, even though the building is scheduled to open early next month.

But he said he wouldn't panic, even if it takes another two years to sell the remaining condos.

"Long term, people will still move to California, to the coast, to downtown San Diego," Wilson said. "Hey, this is not Armageddon. It's a needed correction."

Rivera, the TV journalist, admits it was the view of Petco that sold him on his condo. He planned to watch last night's home opener from his balcony, even though he and his wife haven't officially moved in yet.

As a kid, he dreamed of playing professional baseball.

"He can't be on the field," his wife said, "but now he has the best view."

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