The REIT has projects under way in Austin and San Antonio andone in the planning stages for a 10-acre parcel in Round Rock, just20 miles north of the state capital. Earlier this year, UnitedDominion had started selling off older suburban communitiesnationwide and curtailing developments in those types of markets infavor of high-tech centers, such as the Austin region. Theeconomically strong high-tech markets are bursting with what theREIT depicts as "echo boomers" and immigrants, two of thefastest-growing groups of renters.

United Dominion plans to build a high-density, four-storycomplex in Round Rock. The development plan and design won't beready until January, Dan Baber, United Dominion's Western Divisionproject manager, tells GlobeSt.com. Construction isn't expected tobegin until fall 2001 and will take an estimated 18 months tocomplete. "That's the soonest we could get it going ... and get itthrough the city process," he says. The project, which carries anestimated $28-million construction price tag, will boast a high-endfinish-out, with possibly wood and ceramic flooring.

Meanwhile, United Dominion's construction division is preppingto turn over a 4,296-sf clubhouse to the REIT's leasing entity forRed Stone Ranch, located in the Cedar Park suburb in the northwestAustin submarket. Baber says the clubhouse will be handed over atthe beginning of December, a move that will launch leasing. Thefirst units will be ready for occupancy in February for the324-apartment community positioned on slightly more than 18 acresat 1600 Lakeline Blvd. The 18-building project, which is costing$16.6 million to co0nstruct, will be completed in summer 2001,Baber says.