Kastera Development LLC will break ground Thursday on a $97 million, 177-acre mixed-use development project at the southeast corner of Victory and Meridian roads in south Meridian.

The project would feature 548 homes, including apartments, urban-style lofts, condominiums, single-family houses, patio homes and estate-sized homes, said Ben Forrey, Kastera's director of sales and marketing. Home prices would start at about $220,000 for an alley-accessed home to over $2 million for an estate-sized house overlooking the Treasure Valley, he added.

Kastera said the development, named Cavanaugh, will also contain:

• 400,000 square feet of office, retail, and restaurant space named The Boardwalk at Cavanaugh.

• A 30-acre, open-air retail center that would bring 830 permanent retail jobs to the Valley.

• Several retailers that would be making their first appearance in Idaho. Forrey would not name the retailers.

Bob Fick, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Labor, said the average retail wage in Idaho is $11.11 an hour.

A mansion whose design was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright sits on the site and was Idaho's first $1 million home when completed in the early 1970s. It will be converted into a community center for residents of the development. It will also be available to anybody in the Valley wishing to reserve it, Forrey said.

Meridian officials said the Cavanaugh project will give the area's construction industry a needed boost. State officials recently reported that more than 4,000 construction jobs have been lost in Idaho since March 2007 because of the housing slump.

"It (Cavanaugh) will mean construction, which means construction jobs, which means money being funneled into the economy," said Phil Stiffler, Meridian economic excellence coordinator.

According to the Idaho Department of Labor, the 2007 average wage for a construction tradesman was $14.91.

Paul Hiller, executive director for the Boise Valley economic Partnership, said news of the Cavanaugh project will help counter some of "the negative publicity the housing industry has been getting."

"Kastera is sending a very strong message," Hiller said. "It's saying, 'We're very optimistic about the area's development industry in the long-term.'"

Forrey said home builders have already reserved 70 percent of the 123 lots for sale in the first phase of the development.

"That's phenomenal for the current state of the housing market," he said.

Three future homeowners have reserved their lots from builders and are working on building plans, he said.

Construction on the first homes is expected to begin Oct. 1, following six months of site work.

"It's possible the first residents could be moving in by Christmas," he said.