Developer Veritas Urban Properties of San Diego has broken ground on a $5 million, mixed-use townhome and retail project in Point Loma, called The Famosa Townhomes.

Company officials said the project includes nine for-sale units and a pedestrian-oriented retail component, at Voltaire and Catalina streets. It is being built on a 13,000-square-foot parcel that has been vacant for 17 years.

Named for the nearby Famosa ecological preserve, the project includes three-story, row-style homes set above two-car garages, with approximately 2,200 square feet of retail on the lower level. Retail tenants have not been announced.

The project is expected to be completed in fall 2014, with home prices expected to start in the mid $400,000 range.

Veritas, founded in 2011 by brothers Russ and Scott Murfey, is nearing completion on The Point, a 21-unit apartment and retail project in the Crown Point neighborhood near Mission Bay. It is in early planning stages for a new 36-unit apartment project in the mid-city area.

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