With condos in Charlotte typically starting above six figures, many empty-nesters are priced out of the market.

Now developer WKB Companies believes it has created home for them. Two-bedroom, two-bathroom units are selling from about $98,000 to about $112,000 in ranch-style Somerset Springs on Mineral Springs Road in northeast Charlotte.

"We've been working on this concept for several years as we've watched land prices rise and construction costs escalate," said Max Williams, company president and CEO.

"We saw a niche for the empty nester whose choices now are staying where they are, moving in with a family member or going into an apartment."

Williams believes Somerset Springs also will appeal to single-again adults seeking the privacy of a small project without the responsibility of mowing a lawn.

Groundskeeping and landscaping will be covered by the 42-unit project's homeowner association fees, he said.

Charlotte residential real estate analyst Emma Littlejohn said, "No one is addressing that market now. The major townhome builders include a few small units for those empty nesters, but no one is devoting a project to them."

Record low mortgage rates have fueled a strong condo market that ranges in Charlotte from starter units around $100,000 to luxury abodes exceeding $1 million.

Williams began to focus on the lower-price niche in earnest after seeing the price escalation over nine years of WKB's bread-and-butter design: the "Pinwheel" condo with four end units.

The lowest priced two-bedroom condo in his first project -- in Piper Glen -- sold for $137,700. Today, he said, a comparable unit would sell for $187,000.

WKB has completed three model condos on the 6.5-acre Mineral Springs Road site, about a quarter mile east of Sugar Creek Road near Burgandy Drive.

One unit has sold, and buyers are negotiating contracts on four. An on-site sales office is staffed by Prudential Carolinas Realty's New Homes Services.

Buyers can choose from three floor plans ranging from about 1,000 to about 1,250 square feet.

Condos feature private patios, eat-in kitchens, master bedrooms with walk-in closets, 9-foot ceilings, brick-and-vinyl siding, wide interior doors and hallways and light switches located for handicapped accessibility.