More than 150 potential home buyers heard T. Wall Properties' pitch at a "public reveal" for the developer's first residential subdivision, to be built over the next 10 to 20 years on a 780-acre parcel northeast of Middleton.

Within 24 hours of the April 19 meeting in Madison, 10 possible buyers dropped off completed applications with $500 refundable deposits, putting them first in line when individual home sites in the development's first phase can start being selected at a May 10 event, T. Wall vice president of development Andrew Inman said.

"It was a fairly broad cross section of people ... and it was definitely a variety of ages," he said. "We had several empty-nesters looking to downsize, we had a few first-time home buyers, and we had a number of move-up buyers."

To be known as Bishops Bay, the overall development could boast up to 6,000 residents in seven neighborhoods and be the largest single source of new homes in Dane County. Located in Middleton and the town of Westport, Bishops Bay is a roughly rectangular plot of land bordered, in part, by Highway Q, Highway M and Oncken Road.