In January 2003, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. announced before hundreds of people its plan for a new headquarters to anchor a $60 million retail and entertainment complex called Unity Place.

Then, everyone waited.

The project on the western edge of downtown Winston-Salem at Fourth and Broad streets slowly fell apart.

Tom Fowler, whose family moved its car dealership to make way for Unity Place, got tired of waiting.

Yesterday, with much less fanfare, Fowler announced a new plan, West End Village. The mostly residential project, estimated to cost $70 million, is designed to connect downtown's business district with the West End, said David Furman of Boulevard Centro, a Charlotte architecture and development firm hired by Fowler.

"The goal is to build the project in phases so that it evolves into a neighborhood over time," Furman said.

The project includes about 250 condominiums and multistory town houses, as well as commercial and office buildings that will be built based on demand.

"I'm working on a grocery store," said John Reece, a regional director for Lincoln Harris, a local development and commercial real-estate company also involved.

The first phase of the project is scheduled to break ground in September, and will consist of a four-story building to be called 4th & Broad. The building will have 49 condominiums that will be sold at a starting price of $108,000, as well as a small amount of space on the ground floor for a couple of shops and perhaps a small cafe, Furman said.

Included in the first phase is the start of construction on what will eventually be more than 20 multistory town houses.

"One of the reasons we are breaking it down into smaller pieces is that it's easier to get done," Furman said.

Fowler beamed as the plans were presented before about 20 city officials, and downtown residents and boosters in Modern Chevrolet's empty showroom.

"I'm just focusing on things from here forward," Fowler said.

George Bryan, a member of the West End Neighborhood Association, said he was pleased.

Unity Place had raised some concerns because it was centered on Krispy Kreme's headquarters and a courtyard that focused inward; neighbors would have seen the backs of buildings, Bryan said.

"It's been two years now the project has been dead and that hasn't been helpful to the communities around it," he said. "We are very excited about how this project will bring Fourth and Broad streets alive."

West End Village is being announced during a boom in residential construction downtown. The historic Nissen Building on Fourth Street is being refurbished into 147 apartments, numerous loft projects are under way in old tobacco warehouses, and Tar Branch Towers is near completion with high-end condominiums on Brookstown Avenue.

"The more projects, the better," Furman said.

The fact that few people are living downtown is not a reflection of the market but of the lack of product, he said.

Unity Place was to have been filled with commercial space to accommodate urban dwellers. In addition to restaurants, shops and some offices, the plan included a performing arts center, which was removed early on, and a multiplex theater with an IMAX screen.

The Millennium Fund, a nonprofit group that has accumulated a pool of money for economic development, bought a number of properties along Brookstown Avenue for a parking deck to accommodate the theaters under the Unity Place plan. The organization now plans to sell its properties to the West End Village developers, who will use them for town houses and lofts.

Fowler recently made available several properties - just across the street from West End Village - for what might yet become a theater complex.

Dale Pollock, the dean of the school of filmmaking at the N.C. School of the Arts, has said he is still working with Consolidated Theatres of Charlotte to develop a theater complex, though it won't include an IMAX. Unity Development Corp., a nonprofit organization set up by the School of the Arts, could either become a landlord or a partner in the venture, which would be used to teach School of the Arts students, officials said.

Unity Development Corp. was created to develop Krispy Kreme's headquarters and the movie-theater complex for Unity Place.

Representatives from the theater company declined to comment, and Pollock couldn't be reached.

Mayor Allen Joines said he is pleased that Fowler waited to announce the project until its details were in place. One frequent criticism of the Unity Place project has been that it was announced much too prematurely, he said.

West End Village will tie in to developments on Fourth Street, Joines said, as well as to a potential baseball stadium for the Winston-Salem Warthogs being planned just a few blocks away, officials said.

• Victoria Cherrie can be reached at 727-7283 or at vcherrie@wsjournal.com