Price also hopes it will brand the up-and-coming neighborhood as a development hot spot for buyers.

Price concedes that the branding will help differentiate the Boston Wharf project from so many other residential developments now under construction in the city; giving it an identity uniquely its own. In the next 12 months to 18 months, he says, the development partners plan to roll out a comprehensive ad campaign that will "really create the brand and what the brand stands for."

Alex Twining, with Twining Properties in New York, tells GlobeSt.com that his firm begins its branding concept on projects long before the first shovel enters the ground.

At Twining's Watermark Residences in Cambridge, brand development began with an international competition to select an architect who would create a 'distinctive' and 'recognizable' building for the developer's $95-million Kendall Square apartment project. Additionally, a lengthy name selection process followed. Twining wanted to give the building an easily recognizable name that also created a sense of place for the development.

The company's most creative concept perhaps came when it paired up with the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park in Lincoln to incorporate artwork on loan from the museum into the project's interior design.

"The DeCordova Museum is a known brand that has high quality art work," Twining explains, noting that pairing the Museum with the project created "good synergy" that elevated Watermark's luxury apartment brand to a higher level. A partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which offered the Watermark's residents use of the school's recreational facilities, upped the ante even more.

Throughout the region, builders are working to stamp an identity on their own projects through partnerships, marketing and other creative methods.

But for Twinning, there is one solid principle when it comes to creating a project's identity--"You really have to be careful how you brand it," he says.