An apartment building in Lake Highlands is a tough sell. Fortunately for developer Rob Stone and The Duke Companies, which will build on roughly four of six vacant acres just north of Northwest Highway, at Shoreview and Ferndale (White Rock Skate property excluded) no selling is required.

A Tuesday meeting at Gracehill Church, adjacent to the property in question, was more of a courtesy, to introduce the plans to the neighborhood, take questions and hear feedback for minor tweaks to the plan. A planned development already was approved in 2008, when then owner Stuart Jones requested rezoning that would allow him to replace the old shopping center on the northeast corner with an upscale, mid-rise apartment complex, plus 60,000 square feet of retail or office space.

Though some neighbors voiced concern at a City Council meeting at the time, this rezoning to Planned Development 779 passed in March that year.

At Tuesday’s meeting, councilman Adam McGough made clear that the project they were here to discuss had already been approved, years ago. Also, he noted, these guys are not responsible for the White Rock Skate closure.

Everything Duke presented at the meeting — 235 units, four stories in some sections (two in others), a 350-space parking garage — falls within the PD allowances. Some fine tuning will take place before a final approval by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

McGough says he will take feedback by email. His office will collect feedback for Duke, he says, and “I will use it in discussions to the extent I will be allowed in them,” he says.

Stone, a Dallas resident with a daughter at Ursuline, told the group he wants to build something special in Lake Highlands.

“All do is develop apartments. It’s what I’ve done my whole life, and what my father did,” Stone says.

The planned units average about 876 square feet and will run about $1.60 per square foot to rent. Sixty two percent of the units are two bedrooms. The building sits within the Lake Highlands Elementary, Junior High and High School attendance zones.

Construction is expected to begin this summer and last about two years. The architects Humphrey’s and Partners built a similarly sized development at Lawther and Northwest Highway, which just began leasing.

Neighbors, including former councilman Bill Blaydes, expressed unhappiness about more apartments in District 10/Lake Highlands. In general, the apartment experience in our neighborhood has been negative, with hundreds of apartments built 20-30 years ago now falling into disrepair. “How do we know these won’t be the tenements of the future?” one attendee asked.

Others said they nonetheless appreciated Stone’s willingness to answer questions and thanked him.

No one knows what is happening with the White Rock Skate property at this point, both McGough and Stone say.