Hebron 121 Station ultimately will include 1,755 multifamily units and 250,000 square feet of retail and office space. Huffines will likely build the project in six to seven phases. Depending on absorption, the project should be built out by 2017 or 2018, according to Bob Kembel, executive vice president with Huffines.

Kembel tells GlobeSt.com that Hebron 121 Station was several years in the making. The biggest challenge was the site location within the Trinity River Basin.

“The site sits in a flood plain, and we had to do quite a bit of engineering work to find out if the site was viable for development, and then we had to work with the Army Corp of Engineers to reclaim it,” Kembel explains, adding that the Huffines spent about $3 million in “dirt work” to bring the site elevation above sea level so it’s not long in the flood plain.

Huffines partnered with a number of firms to work through the design and engineering challenges including: TBG Landscape Partners, Jordan Skala Engineering, Integrity Structural, HPA Design, general contractor CF Jordan Construction and Pinnacle Property Management.

Dallas-based Humphreys and Partners and Graham Associates Inc. designed the initial phase, which consists of four mid-rise buildings. Huffines received a $22 million 221(d)4 loan from HUD to finance the project’s construction.

Kembel says Huffines worked with Key Bank to obtain the loan. “We worked for well over a year to get the HUD loan,” he notes. “We were committed to developing the project with or without the loan. We have the resources to get it all built with equity or low leverage with some of the other lender relationships.”

The multifamily is situated on the outer edge of the site, while the office and retail portions are planned closer to the train station. “We’ve created more density closer to the train station, and the plan is to work our way over to the train stop,” Kembel says.