Chapel Hill condos attract wealthy sports fans

Tim Cooper is about to close on a condo in Chapel Hill so he can have a place to stay when he comes on the weekends to watch UNC sports.

He’s one of many allowing the Greenbridge, 140 West Franklin and East 54 developments to get close to selling out as they attract Rams Club members looking for a place to stay during games.

The long-time Rams Club member said a 140 West Franklin condo advertisement caught his eye when he was flipping through a UNC basketball magazine.

“It’ll be nice being right there, being able to walk to the basketball games and walk to the football games,” he said. “It’s all about the sports.”

The condo projects are drawing interest from members of the UNC athletics-supporting Rams Club because of their reputation for being wealthy and dedicated to the University, said Anne Sadler, administrative assistant for the Rams Club.

“A lot of people associated with UNC have money and they want to find something worth buying,” Sadler said. People don’t move to Chapel Hill for industry as much as they move to be near UNC, she said.

Gary Burns, sales director of East 54 off Raleigh Road, said many out-of-town alumni look for second homes in Chapel Hill, so UNC sports fans are a good market to target.

Burns said 25 to 30 percent of the 60 condos he has contracted will be used as places to stay on game-day weekends. He expects the ratio to remain the same through East 54’s completion.

“We advertise in some of the obvious places like The (Carolina) Alumni Review, Tar Heel Alumni, and things Tar Heel alumni fans would be interested in,” he said.

140 West Franklin, at the corner of Franklin and Church streets, has gone to tailgating events and worked closely with Sports Marketing, said Ram Development spokeswoman Kim Counts.

The projects’ marketers target wealthy fans to balance out the minimum 15 percent of units they reserve to satisfy the town of Chapel Hill’s suggested level of affordable housing.

Those units must be accessible to people earning between 65 and 80 percent of the area median income — or $33,599 to $41,352.

Between the weekend Rams Club visitor and the buyer at 80 percent of the local median income, not much room remains for middle ground pricing, said Robert Dowling, director of the Community Home Trust.

Dowling said a typical regular price condo at one of these developments costs about $300,000. All of the developments offer at least 15 percent affordable housing, which runs around $100,000.

Town Council member Donna Bell said these new development projects are bringing in a different type of person to the area. But it’s not really up to the development project leaders to pick who lives in their condos, it’s up to the customers who buy the slots.

“Whether we realize it or not, this is an open market and area and does not always support affordability,” Bell said.

But it’s not that the people moving in haven’t been here before.

Casey Cummings, president of Ram Development, said 60 percent of those who have signed the first 40 contracts are still directly affiliated with the University.

Gary Sobba, general manager of Tar Heel Sports, works directly with Chapel Hill development projects and advertises with alumni clubs and organizations such as the Rams Club.

“These development projects are one of the major targets in our marketing, and these developments seem to target the fans,” Sobba said.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.