“We feel pretty good that the economy has stabilized, and we think the timing is good to get a building like this under construction,’’ said Michael Roberts, vice president of development at AvalonBay, which develops and owns apartment buildings across the country, including many in Massachusetts.

Located at the Huntington Avenue end of Exeter, the building will offer apartments ranging in size from stu dios to three-bedroom units, with rents ranging from $2,000 to $8,000 for penthouses. Residents will have access to a fitness center and club room, and AvalonBay will use spaces in the Prudential Center garage for resident parking, under an agreement with Boston Properties, which owns that complex.

Elsewhere in downtown Boston a handful of other long-stalled projects, reconfigured to include apartments, are also edging forward, including the 200-unit Dainty Dot building in Chinatown and the 234-unit Waterfront Place in South Boston. City officials said they are also fielding proposals for new buildings.

With the condo market stalled because of wary buyers or tighter mortgage conditions, apartments have become the one hot spot in real estate markets. Rents are up, vacancy rates are down, and lenders are far more willing to underwrite new apartments than other residential or commercial buildings.

“That’s the reality of the market,’’ said John Palmieri, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority. “People still want to live close to work, to cultural and historic amenities. We have our economic sectors, our research and academic employee base, that are still doing well. Demand has continued to support residential rentals, and developers are better able to secure lending and debt.’’

It also helps that AvalonBay, a real estate investment trust, is able to finance the project itself.

Others cautioned against getting too optimistic about the broader real estate market. David Begelfer, chief executive of the Massachusetts chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate development association, said the Exeter project benefits from a “premier’’ location.

“For commercial buildings, it’s still a case-by-case basis. Most development is still pretty much on hold, unless the building has a specific use,’’ he said, such as the new office tower Liberty Mutual is building on Berkeley Street.

Underscoring that point, another building proposed and approved for the Prudential Center, the 888 Boylston office building, is still on hold. It was permitted by the city at the same time as AvalonBay’s apartment tower, and the two projects were supposed to mark the final construction phase at the Prudential complex.

Boston Properties is the developer of 888 Boylston, a 17-story tower that would host offices on the upper floors and retail space on the lower. Part of that project includes buffing up the plaza in front, adding more open space, and additional lighting, plantings, and seating.

The company said it has no immediate plans to start the project and is not planning to switch from office use.

Elsewhere in the city, Boston Properties is finishing Atlantic Wharf, a 32-story office and residential tower at the corner of Congress Street, between the Fort Point Channel and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

But Begelfer said that given how moribund construction has been in the downtown area in recent years, the interest in rental buildings is a welcome and striking shift.

“I think the market is ripe for it,’’ he said. “I would not be surprised if there ends up being competition for who gets in the ground first. Otherwise, the market could get saturated.’’

Correction: Due to a reporting error, the original version of this story gave the incorrect title for David Begelfer. He is chief executive of the Massachusetts chapter of NAIOP.

The 13-acre Portside at East Pier development has been a fallow slab of concrete since Roseland abruptly stopped construction in 2007, just as the real estate market was beginning to falter.

The land-side section of East Pier, a parcel of three city blocks, has large white pylons that jut skyward, including some that have settled and tilted. On rainy days, water collects into a lake-like puddle. About the only movement behind the locked fence comes from waddling ducks and geese.

Roseland now said it is in talks with two lenders about starting on a portion of the massive complex: the 176-unit apartment building on its west end. If it receives a commitment for funding by year’s end as expected, Roseland said it will break ground by late spring or early summer.

The East Pier project has been a long time coming. The land is owned by the Massachusetts Port Authority, which is leasing it to the developers. It was first proposed in 2000 and was permitted by the city in 2005.

Roseland and its development partner Lennar Corp. planned to build a $275 million, 543-unit luxury condo and apartment complex. It initially was called Portside at Pier 1. It would also have 70,000 square feet of retail space, including a day-care center, restaurant, and health club.

The developers originally planned to price the condos from $500,000 to $2 million. But when Roseland first began working on the site, it encountered problems with the existing pilings supporting the pier, requiring costly reinforcement work.

Then the real estate market began collapsing and construction of luxury condos — which made up the bulk of the East Pier complex — became particularly difficult to finance. Roseland stopped work in 2007, and the site has been quiet since.

“Ten years is a long time to be involved in anything where there are no concrete results,’’ said Bob Strelitz, a founding member of the East Boston Waterfront Development Committee, which has overseen development of the parcel since 1999.

Frustrations aside, Strelitz said Roseland has been in steady contact with the neighborhood and recently previewed plans for the apartment building, which he described as “quite attractive.’’

“Roseland is constant in their assurance that they’re trying to move forward,’’ Strelitz said.

Roseland spokeswoman Nancy Sterling said the company still intends to complete the condo and retail portions of East Pier, but she acknowledged that could take years. For now, though, the hot market for apartment properties — rents in the Boston area have held steady or even risen as home prices have fallen — has made it much easier to find financing for the rental housing component.Continued... more at boston.com via the boston globe By Steve Holt