PARACHUTE, Colo. (KKCO) - With a lot of rooms for rent, Battlement Mesa, the once booming development near Parachute is no longer reaping the benefits of being next door to an oil exploration.

"We basically saw a huge cut back in our tenants starting like in February," says Dan Cohen, development manager for the Battlement Mesa Company.

With hundreds of empty apartments, the Battlement Mesa Company is taking drastic measures to bring in more tenants.

"For new tenants during the month of November, we're basically allowing them to come in for their first year with very low rental rates. Basically looking at what our 2006 numbers were," says Cohen.

And the savings are significant. A one bedroom apartment that used to rent for $790 is now just 565 a month.

"You know we have a large number of vacancies this year that we haven't had in the past so we're reaching out to potential new tenants and also lowering rent for existing tenants," says Cohen.

And the lowered price you get is locked in for two years.

"We're trying to help out existing tenants that have potentially lost their jobs or have less hours and making less money," says Cohen.

The Battlement Mesa Company is confident their new reduced rates will put the development back on the map.

"As natural gas prices rebound, we're going to see more jobs coming back hopefully and with cheaper rent rates and the most affordable housing in the valley, we're going to see more people coming in, which is great," says Cohen.