Community leaders gathered this week to celebrate an affordable housing project built in the Medical District by a private developer with significant backing from the city and state.
Greenville Mayor P.J. Connelly led the ribbon-cutting for Arlington Trace, a $31.7 million, 180-unit apartment complex that will greet its new tenants in the next 30 days. Thursday’s event allowed Taft-Mills Group, the project’s developers, to recognize the organizations that made the project, which started in 2017, possible.
“The need for affordable housing has never been greater, and we’re just honored to be in an industry that does such social good,” said Dustin Mills, president of Taft-Mills Group LCC.
“During the previous six years, I think we all know this development has suffered cost overruns because of construction pricing, interest rate hikes, something along the lines of a global pandemic, labor shortages and an early stage need for rezoning,” Mills said. “But when it was all said and done, the City of Greenville was a huge supporter of this particular development and other entities that if we didn’t have a partnership (with) stuff like this would not come to fruition.”
The City Council loaned Taft-Mills $1 million from Greenville’s annual HOME fund allocation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The loan will be repaid in 20 years with no interest.
The N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency contributed $5 million to the project, Mills said. That $6 million in public funding allowed the project to go forward, he said.
“This is one of our biggest projects we’re funding,” said Tracey Colores, NCORR’s community development director. “Because of the hard work that was done before we got involved in this project it is a year and half ahead of its peer group.”
Tax credits issued by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency through its Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program represent a large percentage of the equity in the project. Without that equity, the debt could not be decreased and the apartments couldn’t fall in the affordable category, Mills said.
The complex will serve residents who earn 60 percent or less of Pitt County’s area median income. Rent will be less than $1,000 a month, depending on the size of the unit.
Arlington Trace has 18 one-bed units, 102 two-bedroom units and 60 three-bedroom units. The apartments range in size from 800 square feet for a one-bedroom to 1,170 square feet for a three-bedroom, Mills said.
The complex has an exercise facility, computer room, outdoor seating areas, a picnic shelter and playground. Every apartment is built to Energy Star standards to help reduce resident’s overall utility costs.
“We’ve had lots of discussions over the years about Arlington Trace and it’s taken a lot of time to get to this point but it’s incredible to see the finished project,” Connelly said.
The building is located near the intersection of Arlington Boulevard and Dickinson Avenue, an area that has seen continued development over that last several years.
Greenville Councilwoman Tonya Foreman, who advocates for affordable housing through CAREE, Citizens Advocating for Racial Equity and Equality, a nonprofit she founded, said two years ago she stood and watched people who lived at nearby Arlington West apartments forced to leave furniture and other belongings on the side of the road after they had been evicted because of a rent increase.
Recently, she spoke to one of those families and they’ll soon be moving into Arlington Trace.
“That confirms why we are here today and why projects like Arlington Trace are so important,” Foreman said. “I commend you all and we celebrate today, but y’all put your running shoes on, you have to get back to work tomorrow.”
There is a nationwide housing crisis, she said, but it is more accurately felt in communities like Greenville.
“We need to maintain our fervor as we make sure all of our citizens have those basic needs met,” Foreman said. “I commend you all and look forward to continuing working with you.”
The greatest frustration in working in affordable housing isn’t the need to piece together funding, but the fact that there isn’t enough funding to support all the projects being proposed, Mills said.
“Please support affordable housing, please talk to your elected officials about it. We are happy to develop as much affordable housing as we can get funding for,” he said. “It’s incredibly important to increase funding for affordable housing.”
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