Construction is underway on the first phase of Picket Fence Community, a rental home development on the northeast corner of 88th Street and Mills Civic Parkway in West Des Moines.

The development by SG Communities and Tricap Residential Group includes one- to three-bedroom rentals built as six-, eight-, 10- and 12-plexes. Eighteen homes are expected to be ready to rent this fall and 35 more will be ready for occupancy by the end of the year.

Overall, the $60 million development will include 236 one- and two-story homes, all with single-car attached garages. The development will also include a club house, outdoor swimming pool and pickleball courts. The units include doorbell cameras and other smart-home technology. Construction is expected to be completed by 2027.

“There’s a lot of interest from people who want to stay in the area but want a higher-end rental product,” said Bryan Pritchard, founder and CEO of Tricap Residential Group, a Chicago-based real estate investment firm. “We think these will be really attractive to the move-down buyer.”

The smallest home is 865 square feet with one bedroom and one bathroom. The largest is 1,565 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Monthly rent rates range from $1,650 to $2,680.

When the development was first announced in early 2022, plans called for the construction for up to 195 one- and two-bedroom rental houses, 41 of which were to be detached homes and the remainder bi-attached housing. Attached garages were not included with the homes.

“One of our customers’ most pressing demands is an attached garage,” Pritchard said. “We couldn’t accommodate attached garages for all the units on a single-story product, so we started to get creative and really lean into what has become a build-to-rent-type product, which is two-story, slab on grade.”

Residents will all have their own front doors, attached garages and outdoor space, he said.

“We were able to put together a community that I think that is still very much in sync with the surrounding neighborhood – apartments for rent and single-family homes,” Pritchard said.

Picket Fence is targeting renters who have outgrown or are tired of traditional apartment living but either can’t afford to buy a house or don’t want the responsibility of one, Pritchard said. “The transitional product is like a home but it’s for rent.”

In the second quarter of 2025, 65.1% of U.S. households owned the home they live in, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The homeownership rate has fallen from a high of 69.4% in 2004’s second quarter.

Higher sale prices for homes coupled with higher interest rates has contributed to the recent decline in homeownership.

“We’re trying to appeal to that group that really wants or needs something in between renting a traditional apartment and or buying a home,” said Jerry Slusky, co-principal of Omaha-based SG Communities.

Added Slusky: “We named it Picket Fence for obvious reasons. We want people to feel very much like it’s a home not an apartment. I think all of the units are very home-like.”