In a city of established neighborhoods with distinct personalities, the nascent downtown apartment market has an image problem.

Few potential residents have an idea of what living in the business district would be like.

But developers who have invested time and millions of dollars on uncharted residential territory are crafting messages they hope will be persuasive: The buildings are "luxurious" and "urban" with "high ceilings" and "24-hour" fitness and business centers "within walking distance" of everything.

At least 14 buildings have been completed, are under construction or are planned. Each has its own campaign, but all are targeting the same pool of young professionals, students and empty-nesters to fill thousands of units -- most leasing for at least $1,000 a month.

"We usually try and get Web sites up a few months before a building opens, and we have pretty nice brochures. ... We are cultivating our relationships with human resources departments at major employers downtown," said David Hillman, whose Southern Management Co. converted the former Hecht's department store on Howard Street and a 1920s office building on St. Paul Place.

As in other cities seeking to attract residents downtown, the buildings will compete for people who are considering buying a house instead of renting because of historically low interest rates. They will confront a weak employment market, especially for the young college graduates they court.

And they will battle the perception that people work, but do not live, downtown.

"By and large, the general population thinks downtown is a 9-to-5 office park," said Robert Aydukovic, who tracks apartment development for the Downtown Partnership, a business advocacy group. "It seems like a daunting task to figure out who to market to, but our studies tell us the market segments."

The largest target is young professionals and students 18 to 35 years old. They are followed by empty-nesters looking to trade large suburban homes and lawns for an urban lifestyle. There ise also a small number of families with high incomes and children in private school.

Aydukovic said downtown's employment pool of about 100,000 alone could produce renters for the new apartments, which will total less than 5,000 units if all those planned are built. He also expects people moving from out of town for work to fill some apartments.

Not all people want to buy a house, he said. They want to be in the center of the action, walk to work and have the landlord fix things.

But no one knows how deep the stream of renters runs. That may prompt the next wave of developers and their lenders to wait for demand to catch up with supply, Aydukovic said.

The downtown market is still relatively small, he said. Six buildings from the harbor to Mount Vernon began leasing recently, adding more than 750 units to about 3,300 existing rental units downtown.

They include the Munsey with 150 units, PierSide with 160 units, the Congress with 36 units, the "Y" building with 36 units, the Standard with 200 units and the Atrium with 170 units.

Those open have various levels of occupancy, and some managers concede leasing is a bit slow. The Munsey on Calvert Street is 26 percent leased and the Standard, which opened this month on St. Paul Place, has just a few spots filled, according to their managers. The Atrium, which opened about a year and a half ago, is 85 percent full.

On the way is Centerpoint on downtown's west side with 400 units, Spinnaker Bay on the harbor with 340 units, and Saratoga Court on Saratoga Street with 77 units.

Several other new apartment buildings are on the drawing board, including the Zenith, a 165-unit building near Camden Yards, and Water Tower, a 350-unit complex to be built atop a city parking garage.

Apartment developers and managers are using the latest promotional techniques, including Web sites and online apartment guides. They are also handing out brochures, sending targeted mailings and hanging signs on the buildings and on college and employer bulletin boards.

Tracy Gosson, executive director of the Live Baltimore Home Center, a nonprofit group that promotes city living, believes it would be more effective for developers to present a cohesive message that creates an image for downtown, rather than pitch individual properties.

"We're really excited about the new product and its diversity of style, how it's spread out in downtown," she said. "My biggest problem is the lack of big-picture thinking."

She said downtown needs to be marketed as a neighborhood so potential tenants know what to expect when they open their front doors, such as where to go shop and eat, how close employers are located and how little crime exists.

In addition to delis and coffee shops planned within some buildings, Gosson said, developers need to lure grocers and other retailers downtown.

Live Baltimore offered bus tours last year to show the area to potential tenants. The apartments sponsored them, but managers were resistant at first. They were not sure they wanted to show tenants other properties or the world outside, she said.

Owners of older apartment buildings also worried that new buildings would siphon their tenants, she said. Money has not yet been raised for more tours.

"There appears to be enough [tenants] to go around," she said. "But I don't think downtown is a hot enough market yet that we can sell individual properties."

Roland Rust, chairman of the marketing department at the University of Maryland, College Park, agreed that limited advertising budgets would be better used to collectively pitch downtown.

The most effective means of marketing in Baltimore and elsewhere is by tenant type, he said.

"There are different groups, and the message has to be different to each one," Rust said. "For example, for young professionals the message should be that it's hip and fun and it's the new place for singles. That's the message other cities around the country are getting across."

Renter Joe Betz said none of the marketing materials for individual buildings he came across gave him an idea of what downtown Baltimore was like.

The 27-year-old St. Louis native was offered a job in Baltimore's financial district in June. He looked on the Internet to find an apartment within walking distance of work.

He found Live Baltimore's site and links to building sites. He made a list, all with similar rents and appealing amenities. He took the Live Baltimore bus tour and whittled his list to five. After more visits, the list was down to two or three. Ultimately, he chose the Munsey, at Fayette and Calvert streets, because it was the closest to work.

"Definitely, marketing has an impact," he said. "I got somewhat of a visual and a list before I got here. The brochures were fairly representative of the buildings -- but not their locations. And surroundings are a big thing."

The Munsey's management said the Internet gets people to visit the building, which was constructed the deepest into the financial district and the farthest from existing apartments of all the new buildings.

"We expect them to come and look at a lot of buildings," said Julie Smith, president of Bozzuto Management Co. "We just want to get them here and convince them that we provide the best living environment."

Smith said she wants all of the buildings to fill. That would establish the market, keep demand and rents high, and prompt Bozzuto to develop more downtown apartments.

Bozzuto also manages the Promenade in Inner Harbor East, which opened in 1997 and leased in a swift four months. The company plans another building nearby.

Leasing at the Munsey, where rents range from $975 for a small one-bedroom to $2,125 for a three-bedroom unit, is expected to pick up in the traditional moving season in the spring and summer, Smith said.

So far, the average age of tenants is 30. Most are single, with an average income of $70,000. About 40 percent are from out of town.

Managers of Saratoga Court, at Saratoga Street and Guilford Avenue, hope their summertime opening proves to be good timing. Renters typically begin looking 30 to 60 days out, so marketing will not begin until spring.

The staggered building openings should also keep the market from becoming flooded, especially during an economic slump and a homeownership boom, said Robert DeSantis, president of Whetstone Development Partners Inc., which is co-developing the building.

"The only thing we've really done is add the building to our company Web site," he said. "We're getting a fair number of hits from that."

At Centerpoint, the largest of the apartment projects planned, officials at developer Bank of America say they are constantly surveying the market and are confident it will be ready when they are. The first phase of 70 apartments is about a year away.

"We do continue to be bullish about the depth of the rental market," said Maria E. Johnson, senior vice president of the bank's community development unit.

"There is pent-up demand because there's been nothing built in the last few years."

For now, marketing is mainly limited to a billboard on the property. The building's image is still being generated.

"We're working with an advertising firm now," Johnson said.