Public-Private Partnership Starts Work on Raleigh Affordable Housing
The community is being built on a mix of private and city-owned land.
Raleigh Community Partners, a public-private partnership led by Gilbane Development, Harmony Housing Affordable Development Inc. and F7 International Development, has broken ground on Chapanoke, a 200-unit affordable community in Raleigh, N.C. Completion is expected in early 2028.
Site work on Chapanoke began at the nearly 6-acre site in July. Located at 326 Chapanoke Road, the nearly $58 million development will serve households earning between 30 percent and 70 percent of the area median income. The community will have 66 one-bedroom, 86 two-bedroom and 48 three-bedroom apartments. The property is also expected to contain about 10,000 square feet of retail space.
The project’s capital stack consists of a public-private financing structure that includes tax credit equity, private financing and local public investment. Greystone Real Estate Capital is providing Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity, while Greystone Housing Impact Investors LP and Citi Community Capital are supporting the development through construction and permanent financing. Wake County and the City of Raleigh are contributing subordinate public financing, including $7.1 million in gap financing from Wake County.
The community will be adjacent to Wake Technical Community College’s Public Safety Education campus, which was donated to the county in 2021 by Wake Technical Community College. It is also near the planned Southern Wake Bus Rapid Transit corridor, which will connect downtown Raleigh to North South Station and Purser Drive in Garner, N.C., an industrial and commercial corridor.
Additions to a supply-constrained market
The Chapanoke project comes as Raleigh and Wake County continue to experience strong population and employment growth, which has increased pressure on housing supply and costs. The development is one of several new affordable housing communities in Raleigh and the Triangle area that are using public-private partnerships to create or preserve affordable homes.
READ ALSO: MHN Asks: Why Aren’t More 4 Percent LIHTC Deals Closing?
Like Chapanoke, the projects are using a combination of city or county land, local loans, tax credits and private development funds, according to The News & Observer. They include: King’s Ridge, a 100-unit community in Raleigh developed by CASA; Beacon Ridge, a 120-unit property in Raleigh developed by DHIC; Willard Street Apartments, an 82-unit development in Durham, N.C., being built by Self-Help; and Homestead Gardens, an 87-unit project in Chapel Hill, N.C., being developed by Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, the newspaper cited.
More multifamily activity in the metro
Developers in Raleigh brought 2,157 units online through April 2026, according to Yardi Matrix. However, construction starts were down 47 percent compared to the same period in 2025. The Raleigh-Durham investment sales market recorded $195 million in transactions during the first four months of the year, Yardi Matrix reported.
In early September, Collins Crossing, a 268-unit multifamily community within the Chapel Hill submarket of Carrboro, N.C., changed hands, with Walde Enterprises acquiring the asset from Laramar Group for $31.5 million. The community includes 29 buildings completed between 1971 and 1985.
In August, Wood Partners and Marcus Partners started construction on Alterra Heights, a 280-unit, Class A multifamily project in Apex, N.C. The development is slated to deliver in late 2027. It is the first ground-up construction for Marcus Partners in the Raleigh-Durham market and is part of its expansion across the Southeast.
