The financial crunch may have put the brakes on construction projects around the country. But plans are moving right along for residential development in the future DART station areas in Carrollton and Farmers Branch, city officials there said this week.

High Street Residential, a division of Trammell Crow, plans to break ground by late summer or early fall on a $40 million upscale apartment project near the downtown Carrollton station. Plans call for a mixed-use project featuring about 295 units in four buildings, with retail uses on the lower levels.

Construction is expected to start about the same time on a 300-unit apartment complex near the north Carrollton station at Frankford Road.

Meanwhile, the McDougal Cos., known for transforming a blighted area of Lubbock near Texas Tech University into a thriving residential and commercial district, plans to start construction early next year on upscale apartments near the Farmers Branch station.

Construction on the DART Green Line is already under way. The first trains are expected to roll into Farmers Branch and Carrollton by December 2010.

"One of the last pieces of development that's still alive is apartments ... because if you think about it, all those people who are getting foreclosed upon have to live somewhere," said Peter Braster, transit-oriented development manager for Carrollton. "The banks are saying that you have to be a solid developer ... you have to have a little more equity than you used to."

The city of Carrollton will be a partner of sorts in the project, he said, providing some of that equity.

The city will pay for part of the parking garage that is part of the apartment project. How much that will cost the city has not been finalized, Braster said.

In Farmers Branch, the estimated $34 million first phase of that project would put about 220 apartment units on about 3 acres

Both cities have high hopes for the station areas.

Farmers Branch hopes the arrival of rail lines will spur creation of a downtown area. Farmers Branch is a classic first-ring suburb with development patterns that are an "obvious result of the automotive era," and it never had a conventional downtown square, said Michael Spicer, director of community services.

More than 20 years ago, residents wanted a town center, with governmental uses, shopping, dining and living.

Over the years, Farmers Branch has spent nearly $10 million to accumulate land and set up zoning for the roughly 144-acre station area. Of that, the city owns about 50 acres, about 18 of which are available for development.

McDougal Cos., which is also working with Irving on a development project, would buy the land from Farmers Branch.

And city officials say they believe that this, the third time, is the charm. Farmers Branch had memorandums of understanding with two previous developers for projects in the station area, but both fell through.

"I'm very confident that this will happen, and I think we've found a great partner in the McDougal Cos., who will turn our station area into the downtown area we all imagined," Mayor Tim O'Hare said.

For Carrollton and Farmers Branch, getting one construction project under way in their station areas will ideally spur other developers to invest in the areas. And that, in turn, is expected to spur redevelopment further out.

"If you've got a nerve of reinvestment and success, that will breed reinvestment and success on its perimeter," Spicer said. "And that will spread though other parts of the community."

Carrollton has three station areas and has spent more than $10 million on land acquisition, infrastructure development and zoning ahead of the anticipated developer interest. The growth anticipated in that area could add 8,000 to 10,000 residents and hundreds of millions of dollars to the tax rolls, city officials have said.

"It's like anything else – no one likes to be first," Braster said.

But he's confident that despite the economy, development beyond the two apartment projects will come.

For one thing, the rail stations themselves draw developer attention. But in other cities, downtowns sprouted up where there weren't any before. Carrollton already has a downtown square, where nearly every space is occupied and shops and restaurant continue to thrive.

"It's something a developer doesn't have to create," Braster said. "It's vibrant life going on down there."