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A new Portland developer with a highly sustainable apartment project under construction in the Woodlawn neighborhood is preparing to start another in the Eliot neighborhood.

SolTerra Systems – a design-build firm that specializes in green roofs and solar panel installations – has acquired the quarter-block site on the southeast corner of North Williams Avenue and Fargo Street, where it plans to build a six-story building with 50 residential units, according to plans it recently filed with the city. The project will have 4,440 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, approximately 12 interior vehicle parking stalls and storage space for 64 bicycles.

SolTerra aims to build high-quality projects at low costs by cutting out superfluous elements. Presently, it’s constructing an 18-unit, mixed-use development at the corner of Northeast Durham Avenue and Oneonta Street. The $2.5 million apartment building will feature living walls, solar panels and a rainwater cistern – among other things.

The company’s North Williams Avenue property previously was owned by Bill Reed and his wife, Lydia Lundberg. SolTerra paid $775,000 for it, according to public records.

Like the Woodlawn project, the North Williams development will have a creative flair. Early drawings show the facade along North Fargo Street broken into vertical masses that tilt in opposing directions – a design similar to a strategy employed at the Cyan/PDX in downtown, though on a much smaller scale.

Joe Nydahl of Hendricks-Berkadia brokered the deal for SolTerra. In an email, Nydahl said SolTerra’s founder and president, Brian Heather, has a keen interest in the micro communities in which he builds, and is operating on the cutting edge of sustainable building practices.