CHAPEL HILL - Construction on 140 West Franklin is still in progress, but developers are well on their way to selling all 140 available residential units.

“In a positive way, we didn’t anticipate the velocity of sales that we’re seeing this summer,” says Shari Meltzer director of marketing at Ram Development.

Meltzer says the company has officially sold more than half of its 140 available units.

“And that has been a very pleasant surprise and I think that’s attributable to the fact that people have been waiting on the sidelines and see that we’re for real, so they are coming in and we anticipate that that will continue.”

140 West Franklin will be home to condominiums, retail space, a public plaza, and an underground parking garage.

Residential units will range in price from $300,000 to $800,000 and there will be 18 condominiums set aside for the Community Home Trust. Those units will be sold to first time home buyers that make less than 80% of the median income.

Community Home Trust executive director Robert Dowling says the sale and marketing of those 18 units isn’t quite on his radar just yet.

“We cannot qualify people to purchase those until we’re within 6 months of closing,” he says. “We’re gathering names to put on a list, we’re not going to be actively marketing 140 West until early in 2012.”

Right now, Meltzer says most of the current buyers have some kind of a connection to UNC and are usually alumni, faculty, or hospital staff.

“The attraction to 140 West Franklin is of course the town of Chapel Hill and the university, so proportionately, most of the people have a heartstring connection to the town.”

Meltzer says she expects to see more potential buyers express interest as the project continues to develop.

“There are people who want the location and are willing to commit now, and then you’ll see a different group of buyers come in when they can touch and feel and get a sense of what they’re view will is going to be and they’ll start coming in probably after the first of next year.”

The finished product is still 18 months away and commercial sales are only just beginning.