When developers plan a condominium project these days, they start by identifying a specific market niche.

You'll see high-end projects targeting empty nesters and moderately priced units for professional singles and young couples.

But to ensure success, smaller development companies must narrow the focus even further, taking a rifle-shot of sorts at a certain category of buyers.

"You can't just go out and build it and wait for them to come anymore," said Charlotte residential real estate analyst Emma Littlejohn of The Littlejohn Group. "If you are a niche or smaller developer, you have to hit it dead on."

That's exactly what Chris Kennerly, president of Davidson Development Co., is trying to do at Cove Key Townhomes on Lake Norman in Iredell County.

His 20-unit, $15 million project on Mecklyn Road about two miles off Interstate 77 Exit 33 takes aim at the Lake Norman "move down" market.

I know. You must be wondering: a move-down market on pricey Lake Norman?

Here's how Kennerly explains it: Many active adults who bought large $1 million waterfront homes years ago are ready to jettison the maintenance overhead and move into something smaller.

But they want to continue living on the water.

Cove Key Townhomes caters to them with condominium flats and townhomes ranging from 2,000 to 3,350 square feet and selling from the upper $300,000s to the upper $600,000s.

Townhomes have two master bedroom suites, one upstairs and one downstairs. Owners can sleep downstairs when climbing steps becomes a burden.

The 11.6-acre community will include a new 3,300-square-foot house, which will be sold as a condominium for about $750,000.

Kennerly said the buyer of the house will become a member of the Cove Key Townhomes association with privileges to use all amenities, including the swimming pool, hot tub and planned boat slips.

The house was included in the development plan, he said, to provide a transition between the townhomes and nearby single-family homes.

Natural tree cover was preserved on about half the acreage, he said, to screen residences from the interstate.

Did the project hit the mark? Kennerly thinks so.

He said buyers have reserved about half the units. The next step is the crucial one: converting reservations to purchase contracts.

Lenders generally won't give a project a green light for construction until a developer signs contracts on at least half the units in a proposed project.

Residential real estate analyst Littlejohn said that's why it's so crucial that small development companies not try to compete with production builders and throw up condos on speculation.

To ensure the success of "pre-selling," she said, companies like Kennerly's must take pains to understand their market -- in this case the lake/resort purchaser -- and focus on "income-specific and project specific-criteria."

Kennerly said Davidson Development never strayed from its niche: "providing large, maintenance-free, upscale homes for families moving down from a large house on the lake."

Cove Key Townhomes are loaded with extras and amenities luxury home buyers expect: hardwood floors, 10-foot ceilings, ceramic tile bathrooms with whirlpool tubs, granite kitchen countertops, designer cabinets, marble fireplace hearths, stainless steel appliances and private courtyards with gas grills.

Kennerly has worked with his father, Ron Kennerly of Kennerly Development Co., one of the Lake Norman area's most prolific condo developers, but this is his first solo development project.

He hired Narmour Wright Associates to design the residences and Design Resource Group to create the land development plan. No contractor has been named. Kennerly would like to start construction by late spring and complete the project by early next year.

Residents on Langtree Peninsula organized last year to protest his rezoning, charging that the site was unsuited for multifamily housing and that the project would be incompatible with nearby neighborhoods.

The Iredell County Planning Board recommended approval, and Iredell commissioners voted in favor of it last October.

Planning Director Ron Smith said the townhome project would result in no higher density than if the site were developed for single-family houses.

Kennerly said the development will include 15 townhomes, four condo flats and one house. He is seeking permission from Duke Power to build boat slips.