Fifteen years after being designated developer of a 26-acre swath of waterfront land in East Boston, Mack-Cali Realty Corp.’s Roseland division is gaining traction in its three-phased residential project.

Roseland, known for its Port Imperial mixed-use community on the Hudson River waterfront in New Jersey, just opened the first phase of the Portside at East Pier project on Jeffries Point, which until recent years had been a gritty dockland. The five-story building has 176 rental apartments, 26 of them affordable. The market rate units have rents ranging from $2,000 to $4,800.

Marshall Tycher, Roseland’s president, says the developer hopes to break ground on the next phase—which includes two buildings with 264 apartments—in the third quarter of 2015. “It’s a good time to be building apartments,” he said. “Rates are low and Boston has good job growth.”

As a pioneer on the East Boston waterfront, Roseland still has its work cut out for it, though. A few weeks after launching leasing efforts, the building has found tenants for 24 of the apartments. Roseland is still negotiating with several restaurants to take the 3,500 square feet of retail space in the building.

But East Boston is clearly going through a resurgence as demand grows among young workers for downtown living and more conventional parts of Boston become more pricey. The Maverick Square area, which is a short walk from the Portside development and has a stop on Boston's subway, has seen numerous new stores and restaurants open lately.