Urban planners realize that young people add vitality to a center city, but a big challenge in Charlotte is making housing affordable for them.

It takes committed developers and open-minded buyers.

That's what prompted me last week to visit Silo Urban Lofts, where the first owners have begun occupying condos that sold mainly in the upper $70,000s.

The 32-unit project is in an unlikely location -- next to ADM Milling Co.'s grain storage elevators at West 10th and North Smith streets in Fourth Ward.

Equipment noise, freight trucks and train whistles add to the ambience.

Instead of screening the $2.6 million project from its surroundings, architect and developer David Furman, of Boulevard Centro, embraced the flour-milling plant.

The "industrial chic" building incorporates gritty corrugated metal panels and concrete in the facade and mimics the vertical lines of the grain elevators.

"This project is for people willing to trade square footage for location, value, glass and cool," Furman said.

The lofts are compact, to say the least, totaling slightly more than 500 square feet each.

All but two residential units are sold and buyers have reservations on them. So far, 14 have moved in.

Three of eight street-level commercial units remain for sale. A 400-square-foot unit lists for $65,000 and two 500-square-foot units for $72,500 each.

In both this project and his earlier Gateway Lofts condominiums on West Trade Street, Furman's target market was what he calls the hipsters -- young people seeking space for their two biggest possessions, a bed and a stereo.

As anticipated, Silos' buyers are mainly college graduates in their late 20s and early 30s, said Boulevard Centro sales representative Elizabeth Phares.

First-time homeowner Eric Binder, a 28-year-old architectural intern, was one of the early arrivals.

In addition to affordability, the location attracted him. "It's convenient to uptown -- I work at the Latta Arcade," he said. "I can take the Gold Rush (uptown shuttle bus) to work."

As a single person, Binder said, he preferred a smaller unit. "I have the right amount of furniture for the size, " he said.

Furman aligned the four-story building in what he labeled "the back corner of Fourth Ward" to capture views of the uptown skyline though "tons of glass" in the large windows.

That wasn't lost on Binder. "The view is amazing, " he said, from his fourth-floor unit. "What surprised me about it was the light from the city and how bright it is at night," he said. "You can almost feel the glow in the air."

Standard Silo lofts have 10-foot ceilings, cork floor tiles to absorb noise, built-in computer niches and 6-foot-high panels that separate living and sleeping zones.

Eight penthouses have 13-foot ceilings.

Binder, a Clemson University graduate with a degree in architecture, said he was impressed with the utility of the interior layout of his loft.

Even though it's small, he said, "it meets all the needs I have.... David seems to have the pulse of the people he is selling the units to."

Furman focused on compactness and space utilization to keep loft prices affordable.

In the kitchen, for example, the electric stove has only two burners instead of the standard four and a convection microwave oven instead of a conventional oven. The heating/air conditioning unit is above the ceiling and the water heater is in the top of a closet. Washers and dryers are stacked.

The outside noise was noticeable on the day I toured the lofts, and I wondered about Binder's perceptions.

"When I first moved in here I heard the train at night and I could hear the buzzing from the plant from time to time, but I got used to it," he said.

The sound doesn't bother him now. "Once I'm asleep, I don't wake up to it, " he said.

Few developers will risk building homes in such a nontraditional location, but in uptown's pricey real estate market, affordable sites are limited.

Furman, who also has developed condos in First Ward and plans projects in South End and Wilmore, would like for Silo Urban Lofts to become a trademark.

The project defines Boulevard Centro, he said, with its extremely urban site, adventurous style and affordability.

As city leaders seek to attract more affordable housing to the core, they might want to take a closer look at what happened on this half acre.

Doug Smith