Editor’s note: This is a collaboration between The News & Observer and Enlace Latino NC. Read here in Spanish.
As Kane Realty advances a 28‑acre luxury expansion on the eastern edge of North Hills, the longtime immigrant community from The Pointe at Midtown — a 365-unit apartment complex known to neighbors as “Los Navaho” — is slowly being phased out through nonrenewals.
The project promises towers, trails and more than 1,200 new homes. But it also accelerates the disappearance of “naturally occurring affordable housing,” or NOAH, in a city already struggling to keep low‑cost rentals from vanishing.
Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell acknowledged the strain.
“Given the cost of housing, I understand the frustration at seeing NOAH units lost,” she said in an email. But the city and other metros like Durham and Chapel Hill have “limited tools to prevent the loss of these units, or to help those who are forced to move when the units are redeveloped,” she said.
Here are 10 key takeaways:
- A 28‑acre expansion will replace one of Midtown’s last affordable enclaves.
Kane Realty plans a dense mix of towers, trails, retail and more than 1,200 homes on land that includes The Pointe at Midtown, a 365‑unit NOAH complex.
- Hundreds of residents are being displaced through phased nonrenewals.
Leases at The Pointe are expiring in waves; residents received more than a year’s notice, but the first move‑outs begin within months.
- Two new apartment buildings are planned at 901 Navaho Drive.
Veranda (207 units, 55‑plus) and Merit (387 units with retail) have active site plans and anchor the first phase of redevelopment.
- A 20‑story tower, Vesper, will add another 357 homes.
The project includes a rooftop pool, a 200‑plus‑room hotel, and new retail — part of the district’s push toward a more vertical, urban skyline.
- The Pointe and Grove Towers will be demolished.
Kane and McCourt Partners bought the land for $72 million in January and plan to clear both buildings to make way for the expansion.
- Residents say the loss of NOAH hits hardest.
Before de‑leasing, rents ranged from the low $900s to mid‑$1,500s — prices far below today’s market and increasingly rare in Raleigh.
- Raleigh has lost roughly 35,000 affordable rentals in eight years.
The share of units under $1,000 fell from 55% in 2016 to 10% in 2024, even as the city adds 10,000 new residents a year.
- State law limits what Raleigh can require from developers.
As a Dillon’s Rule state, North Carolina bars cities from mandating affordable units in private redevelopment, even when older housing is demolished.
- City leaders point to preservation efforts — but advocates say it’s not enough.
Raleigh has invested in rehab programs and a preservation fund, and placed a $203 million bond on the November ballot. Critics argue supply‑side strategies haven’t protected renters.
- For families at Los Navaho, the clock is ticking.
Some residents are packing slowly, searching for scarce affordable options, and trying to keep their families stable as the neighborhood prepares to disappear.
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