Icon Gardens at UCSB.Santa Barbara, Calif. — The Icon Company, formed by Billy Ruvelson and Eran Fields to develop mixed-use student housing and retail near universities in California, has broken ground in Isla Vista, an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County. The new project, Icon Gardens at UCSB, is near the University of California Santa Barbara and is three blocks from the beach.

The community will include 30 apartment units for approximately 140 residents and 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and commercial space.

Icon Gardens is the company's third project overall and the second project in Isla Vista. The first, Icon at UCSB, is 100 percent pre-leased for fall and will open in September. Like Icon's other two projects, Icon Gardens is also a joint venture investment with Campus Acquisitions.

The development team includes San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based General Contractor Robbins Reed, Inc., Santa Barbara, Calif.-based architect Hochhauser Blatter, and San Francisco-based Bank of the West.