Downtown Akron has an apartment and condo problem.

There aren't enough of them.

And while it is indeed a challenge the city will need to address if it's to be successful with its economic development plans, the mere fact that a shortage exists says a lot about how far Akron's core has come as a desirable place to live.

"We need 3,000 to 5,000 more units, maybe more," says developer Tony Troppe.

Troppe should know. He's not only developing apartments in and around downtown Akron, but he's responsible for a good chunk of the current demand in the eyes of many observers.

In the past few years, Troppe has redeveloped much of the city's historic arts district near the Akron Art Museum, turning spaces that have been vacant for decades into modern mixed-use developments that include office space, restaurant space, the Musica bar and concert venue, and BLU Jazz Akron nightclub. He's planning a boutique hotel for later this year.

Troppe also opened the 24-unit Cascade Lofts, a modern apartment building that is a converted 100-year-old tire factory. It sits along the Towpath Trail at North and Howard streets on the edge of downtown.

That building's units rented out quickly, for $1.10 a square foot and up, with no marketing or advertising. The building is fully occupied, Troppe reports.

Other apartments and lofts in the city's center — and there aren't that many yet — report similar strong response.

"We are usually at 100% occupancy. The building stays full and people are usually waiting to get in," said Cassie LaRosa, residential agent for Cuyahoga Falls-based Testa Cos.

LaRosa, who is engaged to Testa principal Joel Testa, was referring to Canal Square Apartments, located in the former YMCA building.

Testa is redeveloping the building into the 15-floor Canal Square Apartments, which lease from $850 a month for older units to $1,600 a month for larger, remodeled units.

Testa already has added 12 units to the building, bringing the total to 67, and it's working to build another 17 this year, LaRosa said.

Testa also develops lofts and condos downtown, including the Northside lofts, where Testa and LaRosa both live, at Furnace and North Howard streets.

There's one condo available in that unit now, LaRosa said. But it's not cheap. The asking price is $482,000, and it just came on the market this year, she said.

If that seems like a wildly unreasonable price for a condo in downtown Akron, consider that Northside already has sold one of its prime penthouse units for $1.2 million, according to LaRosa.

To many longtime Akronites — especially those old enough to remember the 1970s and '80s, when the area of Howard Street now known for luxury lofts was best known for its population of prostitutes and drug dealers — that probably sounds surreal.

But ask some of the young people who make up the majority of the downtown area's newcomers, and they will quickly tell you they want to live near downtown Akron because there are so many cool things to do.

Kaley Foster, a 29-year-old native of Portage Lakes, grew up in the epitome of a suburban environment. She works at her family's company, Buckeye Reserve Title Co. in Munroe Falls, and often spends her spare time making beeswax candles for her own company, Urban Buzz. Like many newcomers, she wanted to live within walking and biking distance of amenities, and be part of a community of like-minded urban dwellers.

She got that when she moved into Troppe's Cascade Lofts in April, she said. Concerts at Lock 4, LeBron James' NBA championship celebration at Lock 3, Canal Park, the Akron Civic Theater and more — they're all within a 10-minute walk of her building, Foster said. And her favorite amenity, the Towpath Trail, is within a stone's throw of her back door.

"There's so much to do. Some weekends, I have 10 events to choose from and I don't know what to do," Foster said.

Likewise for Alexandre Marr and Dominic Iudiciani, both 24 and from Poland, Ohio, south of Youngstown. They also live in Cascade Lofts, in what even Foster admits is the building's premier unit, complete with granite countertops, faux concrete floors and, in this case, a baby grand piano.

Marr and Iudiciani say they wanted an urban lifestyle and a luxury apartment, but didn't want to pay what that would cost them in Cleveland or another large city. Their apartment is $1,700 a month in Akron.

"It's just super affordable to live here," Iudiciani said. "There's nothing like this up there at this price."

"And you have access to a major city within 30 minutes if you want to go to Cleveland," said Marr, who commutes to Cleveland, where he works in product development for American Greetings.

Such new residents make up the "creative class" that Troppe and economic developers hope will move into the city and help to reinvigorate it. But they are not, and should not be, the only component of downtown Akron's population, he says.

"It's not just young people. It's anyone who wants to simplify their lifestyle," Troppe said.

That second component includes people like Yoly Miller, a freelance writer who lives in a rented house on Bluff Street, near the art museum. She wanted a walkable lifestyle and a cool place to live. "The house had just been completely refurbished," Miller said. "Everything has been upcycled or recycled and the place is just beautiful. The counters in the kitchen are made from bowling alley floors."

She's no empty nester, either. Miller is raising four children downtown, where she said they've all become "urban kids that love being able to walk to get ice cream."

Even schools weren't an issue, said Miller, whose younger kids attend Akron Public Schools. (One is at the University of Akron.)

She said finding a place to live was not easy.

Others agree.

"We definitely need more (residential development)," said Jack Diamond, a partner at the Brennan, Manna & Diamond law firm on East Market Street.

"Cities don't come back until people live downtown."

He said some of his firm's employees live downtown and others likely want to.

Even the city of Akron agrees. It has made residential development a linchpin of its plans to revitalize downtown and other urban neighborhoods.

In November, the city unveiled its Downtown Vision and Redevelopment Plan, which relies heavily on downtown residential development, along with projects to make the area safer, more walkable and more attractive to both businesses and residents.

That's a good idea, according to Troppe and other professionals.

"It's a fantastic idea," said Jerry Fiume, owner of Akron-based SVN | Summit Commercial Real Estate Group. "There's way more demand than there is supply and they can't build new units fast enough."

Troppe said he has other plans in the works and predicts other developers will follow suit. He also said Akron mayor Dan Horrigan is the right man in the right role at the right time, because he believes in working closely with developers to get more projects done downtown.

The city has had some recent success. At the end of November, it announced it has found new developers — North Canton-based DeHoff Development Co. and the Streetsboro-based Geis Cos. — to develop the long-vacant Landmark Building.

That plan calls for a $33 million facelift for the 70,000-square-foot building, which would result in a mixed-use development with 86 new apartment units.

That will help, say most observers, though it won't be nearly enough to satisfy the demand.

In the meantime, residents like Foster said they'll wait and remain engaged with the city.

"We don't shun the city's history. We embrace it," she said. "And we're here to help rebuild Akron."