Rock Ridge Ranch, a 226-unit design, will deliver in April 2004. Guy Brignon, Glenbrook's president and CEO, tells GlobeSt.com that this time around he is providing the equity single-handedly and building the complex with a 40-year HUD 221 (d4) loan at a 6% fixed interest rate. The first project, the 285-unit Bardin Greens, rose as pre-sold product to Residential Realty Group of Los Angeles.

Brignon says he will hold the 251 E. Bardin Rd. project as a long-term investment because "there is more return now than in the past." Rock Ridge will target "market-rate residents who want to live in an area with a lot to offer," he adds, noting the tract is two blocks north of Interstate 20 and less than a mile from the 1.3-million-sf Parks at Arlington mall.

Berkshire Mortgage Co. arranged the HUD financing through the Fort Worth office. Brignon, a longtime JPI executive vice president who started Glenbrook three years ago, has been focusing on Dallas-Fort Worth, but that too is changing. He isn't giving up any details, but is in the talking stages for a project in Northern California.

Rock Ridge will deliver in 16 two-story buildings, with a Texas Hill Country design of Austin stone and stucco detailing. Galier, Tolson & French Design Associates of Fort Worth is the project architect; Faulkner Design Group of Dallas designed the interiors. ICI Construction Inc. of Dallas is the general contractor and Land Design Partners of Austin is the landscape architect.

The gated complex will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom units with projected rents ranging from $685 to $1,265 per month. The units will be sized from 638 sf to 1,328 sf.

Brignon says his closest competitor, in terms of quality, is about five miles south. He is confident the Rock Ridge will drive a quick lease-up despite a positioning in a large submarket where 504 units are now under way and 285 delivered last year. According to Carrollton, TX-based M/PF Research Inc., the submarket's occupancy was 92.5% at the Q4 2002 close, down about 3% points from the prior year. By year's end, it will bounce back to 93.3%, researchers predict.