A 300-unit off-post housing area for soldiers and their families will be built at Hütten, a small farming village near the Grafenwohr Training Area. (Seth Robson / S&S)

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — German officials have given the go-ahead for a 300-unit, build-to-lease off-post housing area for U.S. soldiers here.

Grafenwöhr mayor Helmuth Wächter said this month that government officials recently gave the green light to the project in Hütten, a small farming village a few miles south of Grafenwöhr Training Area.

Officials estimate about 1,600 off-post homes must be built to accommodate thousands of soldiers and family members due to arrive here over the next few years.

The houses will be constructed under a build-to-lease program that will see the Army lease back the completed homes. The total cost of leasing all 1,600 homes to be built around Grafenwöhr will be $20 million annually, officials have said.

Houses already are under construction at Netzaberg, an 830-unit build-to-lease housing area being built by the Danish firm Nordica, north of the main post.

The existing town of Hütten includes a bakery, guest house and a small Spar store. It is surrounded by Bavarian pine forest and grassy fields with a lake and an industrial park nearby.

Officials have selected a private investor who work with the city in the Hütten on the Lake venture, Wächter said.

He said it is too early to identify the investor. Wächter added that the housing project involves building new streets and utilities on bare farmland.

Hütten on the Lake will cost an estimated 200 million euros – about $270 million — to build, he said.