The tower at 100 Landsdowne Street is the last building to go up in the 27-acre University Park development bordering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus.

Forest City Boston, the local division of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc., will begin renting the 203 apartments in the 18-story tower in September. Rents for the one-and two-bedroom apartments will range from $2,000 to $7,000 a month. The highest rent is for the largest penthouse apartment, which overlooks Boston and the Charles River.

With the Museum Towers in East Cambridge being converted to the Regatta Riverview condominiums, Forest City's building will be the tallest residential apartment building in Cambridge. The tower's granite countertops and marble bathroom finishes rival other luxury apartment buildings in Boston, such as the residences at the Colonnade, the Devonshire and Avalon at the Prudential. The Cambridge building will include an on-site fitness center, media room, Wi-Fi café and a private dining room with kitchen on the first floor and an observation lounge on the 16th floor with a view of the river and downtown Boston.

The building will have three levels of finishes for the apartment: standard, and upgraded version and the penthouse.

The apartments from the eighth floor and higher have river views. Renters are expected to be wealthy individuals and couples who prefer living in Cambridge to Boston- who "want to see the view, rather than be the view,' said Lauren Paton, regional manager for Forest City Boston. The most expensive apartment in the building is the 17th-floor penthouse, a 1,300 square-foot apartment with a balcony facing downtown Boston. The two-bedroom, 2 ½-bathroom apartment has cherry hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and marble bathrooms, including a 20-inch deep-soaking tub.

"People who are renting and paying this, they want condo quality," said Daniel Hughes, construction manager for the tower.

As the building is rental, the growing inventory of condominiums and threat of increased mortgage interest rates do not have a negative effect on the leasing properties, Paton said. "It helps with the rents as the interest rates go up. Less people buy, so there are more people out there searching for apartments," said Paton.

The proposed rents for the apartments in the building have increased during the building's construction. She expects the tower to be fully leased within one year.

The tower is the fourth residential building in a complex that includes 10 research and office buildings, parking garages, a hotel, restaurant, and retail space. The entire build-out has taken about two decades.

A 51-unit rental loft building also on Sidney Street started leasing this spring. Rents for the one- and two-bedroom apartments range from $2,400 to $3,300 per month.

A 10-story traditional apartment building with 135 apartments was completed in 2002. The building, with monthly rents from $1,960 to $3,400, is fully leased.

The first residential building Forest City completed was the conversion of a historic brick-and-beam building into the Kennedy Biscuit Lofts. The building has 142 units, was finished in 1990 and is fully leased, as well.

The residential buildings will remain rental, rather than convert to condos, which follows Forest City's business model, as well as the 99-year lease for the land, which is owned by MIT.

MIT and the city of Cambridge were partners with Forest City in the entire University Park development.