LEWISVILLE, TX-Mockingbird Properties will break ground in early 2007 on a 264-unit, "eco-friendly" multifamily development at Lake Lewisville. The 13-building complex will cost about $18 million to bring out of the ground.

Tentatively dubbed "Lakeside at 121," the rental project has been designed with California-style overhanging roofs, Xeriscaping and re-circulating ponds to make it as environmentally wise as possible, according to Mitchell Vexler, president of the Dallas-based Mockingbird Properties. "This really is going to be our prototype for the future," he tells GlobeSt.com about a 12-acre development that's less than a five-minute walk from one of North Texas' largest lakes.

The eco-friendly development, designed in house, "is the right thing to do," Vexler says. "It's reasonably feasible and it's right to do."

Mockingbird Properties' in-house construction team will deliver the first three-story building and the clubhouse in August 2007 at the intersection of Lakeside Drive and Texas 121. The plan is to bring a residential building on line every three weeks, according to Vexler.

Vexler says 75% of the "triple AAA" complex will be one- and two-bedroom apartments. The units will range from 825 sf to 1,130 sf. The projected rents are $1.10 per sf to $1.15 per sf.

"They could be condos at some point in time with the quality that we're building, but we're doing it for rental," Vexler says. Right next door, another developer is under construction on for-sale townhouses.

Vexler bought the multifamily-zoned development tract from his new joint venture partner, Baruch Properties of Dallas. "By the time I come on line with Lakeside that section of 121 will be done," he says.