Forty-five duplexes, which make 90 apartments, around a lake that is really a county drainage district's retention pond: that is the plan for a 26-acre mixed-use project in Combes, and it shows how apartment sites in the eastern Valley get shaped by water before they get shaped by architecture. If you are building garden apartments, townhomes or a small mixed-use phase between Harlingen and the Rio Grande flood plain, the questions that decide your return are drainage, floor elevation, utility capacity and how many units you can get into the first draw.
We build for developers who finance multifamily with a lender, an equity partner and sometimes a public incentive, and who need to hand the lender a draw schedule they trust. Our work covers wood-frame garden and townhome communities, duplex clusters and small-to-mid mixed-use buildings with ground-floor retail, and we explain each cost line in plain terms.
Harlingen reports the 2024 International Building and Residential codes in force since October 1, 2025, and that matters if your project mixes townhome-style units under the residential code with larger buildings under the commercial code. State rules also changed the windstorm side: starting April 1, 2026, windstorm certificate applications must be certified under the 2024 International Residential or Building Code, and the entire county of Cameron or Willacy is part of the windstorm program. We design wall bracing, roof tie-downs and openings to the 110 mph Inland II gust speed used in Harlingen, San Benito, Combes and La Feria.
If a tract is in unincorporated Cameron County, the county's flood rules require the lowest finished floor of new construction to sit at least 12 inches above base flood elevation or 24 inches above the highest adjacent natural grade, whichever is higher. That requirement can add two or three steps at every entry, change accessible route slopes and affect the unit mix. We run it during due diligence, before you lock in a density.
Apartment demand in Harlingen follows its jobs: the hospital district, the regional airport, light industry and the schools. Mixed-use ideas like the Combes project pair housing with retail, a wellness center and a future hotel, which gives residents daily needs close by and gives the developer a reason to ask the county or drainage district about shared stormwater. If the site is beside a retention pond, a ditch or a resaca, the neighbor's drainage district is effectively a partner and we call them early.
It also helps to know where water has already caused trouble. Hurricane Hanna left 18 inches to 4 feet of water in many areas between Santa Rosa and La Feria, and the Combes area has a roughly $7 million plan to widen a drainage pipe under I-69E so floodwater can reach canals. We read those public projects as signals of where a lender, an insurer and a buyer will ask careful questions.
Our approach on a multifamily job starts with repetition. We settle the unit plan, the framing package and the mechanical layout early so every building after the first one is faster and cheaper, and we protect the sequence by ordering long-lead items such as electrical gear and windows ahead of need. See our multifamily apartment construction page for the buildings themselves.
We manage the slab-on-grade, the flatwork and the rough framing closely in many cases, which gives us control over the three trades that cause the most delay. On clay soil we pay special attention to slab design and to the drainage around the building, because a settled slab or a ponded entry shows up quickly in a resident review.
Land cost gets the headlines, but the swing items on a Valley apartment project are site fill, detention, offsite utilities and the foundation system. Fill raises the pad and the cost of every retaining edge and accessible ramp. Detention takes land you could have rented. Offsite utility work, if the nearest sewer or water line is short of capacity, can cost as much as a building. We show these as separate lines from the start so an investor can see how each choice affects the yield.
Finish level is the other lever. Residents here ask for covered parking, good air conditioning and durable flooring more than designer extras, and a developer who chooses those priorities gets a tighter budget. We offer alternates in writing and do not bury a cost increase in a change order.
Lenders fund against progress, so we build the schedule in building phases. A common sequence is site work and utilities for the full project, then a first group of buildings, then the clubhouse and amenities while the second group frames. The Combes plan itself pairs retail, housing and a hotel in stages, which is a pattern we can follow when you want housing to reach lease-up before commercial pads are ready. Our phased construction experience applies when you add to an occupied community.
Drainage work in this part of the county has often run months. Harlingen's own $700,000 drainage program took four to six months per site, so we do not promise a utility connection date before the owning district and city have confirmed theirs.
Many apartment developers also build or lease to commercial real estate developers who are putting up the retail and office pads next door. Hospital employees, teachers and airport workers rent in Harlingen, so owners of healthcare systems and education institutions can be your best resident base.
We take the same care with every neighbor: shared driveways, shared detention and shared utilities mean a clean handoff between your contractor and theirs.
Share your unit count, parcel and lender timeline. We will give you a straight range for the building, the site work and the schedule, and show where the water and the utilities will push the number.
On a site in unincorporated Cameron County the lowest floor must clear base flood elevation by 12 inches or sit 24 inches above the highest adjacent natural grade, whichever is greater. The cost depends on how far the pad must rise and how long the building edge is. We estimate fill, steps, ramps and retaining edges together so you see the total effect.
Often yes, though they may fall under different code chapters. Duplexes can be governed by the residential code while larger buildings fall under the commercial code, and the two paths bring different plan reviews and inspections. We sort this out with the building department before final drawings.
It depends on the site. At the Combes project the lake is a retention pond owned by a county drainage district, which means design, maintenance and discharge need coordination with that district. We recommend a meeting with the district before your site plan is final.
We split offsite work from onsite work, confirm dates with each public owner in writing and plan interior work so it can proceed even if a utility tie-in slips. Drainage projects in this region have taken months, so we do not guess.
Yes. A conceptual estimate based on unit count, building type and site conditions gives you a range for your lender package, and we refine it as design develops. It is cheaper than finding a gap after bids come in.