Veterans Memorial Boulevard, a convenient bypass around parts of Bowling Green, hasn’t been bypassed by the local boom in apartments.

Looking to cash in on a housing explosion that has seen the number of multifamily units approved by the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County jump from 457 in 2012 to 2,212 last year, local Realtor Matthew Tabor and Keystone Development Group LLC have started work on developing more than 300 apartments along Veterans Memorial between Russellville Road and Faith United Methodist Church.

The 39-acre development on property the LLC purchased from Dallas Jones for $1.6 million in January will include 42 eight-plex lots and a commercial component, according to Tabor.

“We’ll have one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in the back and commercial property in the front,” Tabor said. “We have people interested in the commercial space. We’re hoping to get a gas station, and we’re talking to a couple of restaurants. By my estimation, there will be close to 1,000 people living there.”

Tabor said he and his partners targeted the Veterans Memorial area because it isn’t currently served by the kind of “higher-end” apartments the group is looking to build.

“That’s a growing area,” Tabor said. “People are filling apartment vacancies quickly in that area. Sometimes they’re filled within a day of going vacant.

“We’re trying to do some higher-end luxury apartments, with every unit having the same finishes. There’s nothing like that in that part of town. It should improve the property values in that area.”

Darrel Sweets of Bowling Green home construction company Sweets Design Build will build some of the apartments in what is being called Keystone Commons.

Like Tabor, Sweets said they will have some niceties not normally found in residences along Veterans Memorial.

“We’re trying to make it a little more upscale,” said Sweets, who has been involved in building the St. Jude’s Dream Homes in Bowling Green that are raffled off each year. “We’re adding some nice architectural elements that we’ve used in our single-family homes.”

Sweets said the Keystone Commons development is in a great location to capitalize on Bowling Green’s growth.

“It has great proximity to everything,” he said. “It’s close to the university and to Russellville Road. I think this will go over well.”

Apparently, other builders feel the same way about the Veterans Memorial corridor. Although construction hasn’t started, John Groves and Shane VanMeter were approved last year for rezoning 4.6431 acres on the site of the former Wah Bah Steakhouse near Veterans Memorial and Russellville Road.

Their plan calls for building up to 120 apartments on the property.

The Keystone Commons development is moving more quickly, Sweets said.

“We’re working on the property now,” he said. “We should be able to start leasing in early spring.”

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.