Patrick Turner, the South Baltimore developer who wants to create a second Inner Harbor along the Patapsco River’s Middle Branch, has signed a deal for the first building on the property.

Landex Development, a Linthicum-based builder of rental housing, said it will build a $40 million, 200-unit, high-end apartment complex on the waterfront at Westport, Turner’s $1.2 billion mixed- use development project.

Construction is slated to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010, and finish about 18 months later, pending approvals of Landex’s design.

Peter Siegel, CEO of Landex, said Turner’s cleanup efforts are directly related to the marketing of his apartment complex, which he called “high-end rental for urban professionals.”

Landex has not selected an architect or determined price points for the units, but the company, which is run by Siegel and his mother, Judy, has renovated historic properties as rental housing in the city before. Most recently, the company was responsible for the redevelopment of Broadway Overlook, a housing project across the street from the Johns Hopkins Hospital that remade a century-old medical facility.

“We’re targeting individuals who want high-end housing, but who also want to partake in the walking trails, the environment around them,” he said.

Although Siegel added that he is looking at the Westport project with a “holistic approach,” he said his company probably would not bid on the town homes portion of it, because Landex has no experience developing for-sale housing.

“We don’t see any abnormal risk in Westport. We think it’s a viable project,” he said. “We wouldn’t get into a project this long-term if we didn’t think it was a great opportunity.”

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