One of the last vacant properties along the Dallas North Tollway near LBJ Freeway is being planned for major new housing development.

Irving-based apartment builder JPI is eyeing the almost 10-acre site on the west side of the tollway north of Alpha Road for a large retail and apartment development.

The planned project would include more than 700 rental units in two phases plus ground-floor retail space. The Jefferson East Branch development is in Farmers Branch northwest of the Galleria Dallas shopping mall.

Back in the 1980s, the property was to be the site of a high-rise office building, but that project never got off the ground. Since then the property between the tollway and Inwood Road has been looked at by developers for multiple projects but remained vacant.

JPI senior vice president and development partner Matt Brendel said the tollway project is one of two the builder is looking at in the area.

"The site is already zoned for multifamily; we are just modifying the site plan," Brendel said in an email.

Architect JHP designed the 6-story buildings.

JPI is also working on a separate, more than 400-unit apartment project just south of the tollway tract at Inwood and Alpha Road. The rental units would be part of a 13-acre mixed-use development that includes retail, office and a hotel on the former site of a big box store.