Lone Tree City Council has approved a site-improvement plan for a seven-story apartment building to be built in the RidgeGate neighborhood.

The co-applicants, Prescient and RidgeGate Investments, want to build a 241-unit building, with two stories dedicated to parking, on 2.73 acres at the northeast corner of Sky Ridge Avenue and Park Meadows Boulevard, according to the site-improvement plan submitted to the city. The project is called “Powered by Prescient — RidgeGate Apartments.” The building will be west of the newly opened Sky Ridge Station and the Kiewit regional campus, which is under construction.

The project will cost $65 million, according to the SIP. The project is expected to be finished by mid-2021, about the same time Kiewit, an engineering and construction firm, will finish its first phase of construction.

The average unit size is 744 square feet, according to the SIP. Of the units, 80% will be one-bedroom apartments. The rest will be two-bedroom units. Some units will be as small as 500 square feet.

“Some people do want larger apartments, but if you're young and single, how much time do you really spend in your apartment?” said Kieth Simon, vice president of Coventry, the master developer of RidgeGate. “Part of doing this is to offer apartment rents that are lower to help a little bit with housing affordability.”

The apartments will mostly serve employees at Sky Ridge Medical Center and Charles Schwab — the neighborhood's largest employers — and the future employees of Kiewit, as well as other Lone Tree residents looking for a smaller, less expensive space, according to Simon. Courtney Lis, a spokesperson for Coventry, said rent prices are not yet known.

Simon said there will be a mix of apartment types and sizes as RidgeGate East builds out, but similar higher-density, “progressive modern” apartments will be more common in the area. Two more apartment complexes like this are in the planning process at the end-of-line station, RidgeGate Station.

“When you drive into RidgeGate from Park Meadows, you'll see all this  lot of retail and commercial development on the corner of Sky Ridge, and I think it'll transform the look of RidgeGate, modernize the look,” Simon said. “You really want to have higher density, walkability and urban character” in that area.

The proposal includes plans for a dog park, for residents only, an exterior plaza and third-deck amenities. About 1,500 square feet will be dedicated to retail space. The retail space will be a dining hall-style space open to the public. It's not known what businesses will go there yet.

Once this project is finished, the Sky Ridge area, already with two nearby apartment complexes, will have roughly 700 residential units in all.

Linda Watson, a Sky Ridge Medical Center spokesperson, said providing housing that was less expensive was a key aspect for the new apartments.

"Anything we can offer to our employees that is a lower price point and is certainly great for recruitment and retention," Watson said.