Seven units will be ready for lease in two to three months, President Lynne Scott Safrit said Wednesday. More will follow if they rent quickly.

“For years, we’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, Cannon Village is so beautiful. We’d like to live here,’ ” Safrit told a crowd of about 100 business leaders Wednesday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Called the Economic Forecast Lunch, the annual event was sponsored this year by NorthEast Medical Center and The Business Journal, a weekly newspaper published in Charlotte.

The four one-bedroom and three two-bedroom apartments range in size from 900 to 1,100 square feet. They will be the first apartments opened over retail stores in downtown’s Cannon Village, but not in the entire city, planner Rick Kowic said. Other apartments are above a store near Big Lots and on North Main Street.

With enough interest, Atlantic American may pursue more upper-floor apartments, Safrit said. “Most retailers can’t use that space,” she said.

Kannapolis City Manager David Hales said downtown residences have been one of the goals of the city’s Vision Cabinet appointed a year and a half ago. The group announced its list of goals to improve the city just last week.

“I think it will be a great change for the downtown and hopefully allow us to recruit restaurants and entertainment venues,” Hales said. “We hope they’re very successful in marketing those.”

Downtown living has become popular in cities nationwide. In Salisbury, Davidson developer Ed Harris has begun leasing 10 condominium units in the former Cheerwine Building at 322 E. Council St. Harris bought the building from Downtown Salisbury Inc. in March.

“People are interested in living in places where they can walk to entertainment, stores and restaurants,” Harris said. “Salisbury is a great old Southern town, and it’s well preserved.”

Atlantic American Properties is controlled by billionaire Los Angeles developer David H. Murdock, who bought Cannon Mills in 1982 for $414 million. When Murdock sold the towel- and sheet-making plants to Fieldcrest in 1985, he put a lot of surrounding real estate into Atlantic American, which he controls.

The company at one time owned about 2,100 mill houses. It still owns 210 of them, most of which retired mill workers continue to rent. It also owns the Kannapolis Country Club, land around Kannapolis Lake and several blocks of brick buildings downtown called Cannon Village.

While some challengers for seats on the Kannapolis City Council have criticized what they call Cannon Village’s lack of customer base, sales have risen 9 percent there so far this year, Safrit said Wednesday.

In recent years, the area’s theme has shifted from outlet stores toward home furnishings, she also said.