One has a picture window 40 feet long overlooking the Los Angeles Country Club. Another has kitchens described as “German-designed works of art.” A third: top-of-the-line “natural” wool carpeting – in its closets.

Add features such as private elevator foyers, wine cellars and formal gardens typical of a Bel-Air estate, and you have some of the most expensive condominiums ever built in Los Angeles.

In fact, the six luxury condo projects that have or soon will come on the market represents the biggest such wave since the 1980s.

Grandly conceived during the housing boom by some of the nation’s top developers, they include the Carlyle on Wilshire Boulevard, the Century in Century City and the Ritz-Carlton Residences in downtown.

But even if they have the right amenities, pedigree and location, the projects serve as a painful reminder of an old adage: Timing is everything in real estate.

“I’m glad not to be in the game of luxury condos at this particular point in time,” said Steve Fifield, whose company sold one of the projects, now known as Beverly West, to a Dubai developer for $93.2 million in 2007 while it was under construction. “It is a very tough market for everybody.”

The penthouses and larger units have sky-high prices of $10 million or more, and even many of the “cheapest” units carry price tags of at least $3 million. And there aren’t just a handful of units. The six projects hold a total of 689.

All of which has forced the developers to cut prices and extend sales time lines. Some projects expected to be sold out upon opening now have sales projections measured in years.

“The challenges are pretty basic. Developers took condos and squared them and hoped to get people out of 10,000- to 15,000-square-foot houses. But those people haven’t sold their houses,” said Stephen Shapiro, a veteran residential broker specializing in luxury estate and condo sales. “(And) I think in talking to developers, they thought 50 percent of buyers would be people from other countries. Then we had a worldwide recession.”

Prices and sales

One thing the developers have going for them is financial wherewithal.

Beverly West is owned by Emaar Properties, which is building the world’s tallest skyscraper in Dubai. The Carlyle is backed by Elad Properties, owned by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva. The Century was built by Related Cos., the New York developer of Manhattan’s Time Warner Center.