Metropolitan Village will improve community’s ‘spiritual and financial lives’

In the summer of 2018 members of the Winston-Salem City Council, other city leaders, business owners and community members came together to discuss the future of East Winston and what has become known as the East End Masterplan. The purpose of the master plan was to set guidelines for future developers and investors in East Winston.
When discussing the plans that summer, former city council member and current president and publisher of The Chronicle, Derwin Montgomery, said, “You’ve seen master plans done, you’ve seen legacy plans done. The difference about this plan is it really is a plan that has action behind it. … This is a plan to help guide development, but it’s a plan to help guide development with the people who live and work in this community in mind on the part of how development happens.”
Just two years later United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church (UMMBC) started planning an affordable housing project on property they owned in the heart of East Winston. And just two years after that, in 2022 UMMBC officially broke ground on the project, which is known today as Metropolitan Village and is essentially the first phase of the East End Masterplan.
The property, located between Highland and Woodland Avenues, is aimed at creating “equitable redevelopment” by minimizing displacement, opening new spaces for economic mobility, and bringing a new approach to diversity and inclusion.
“We strongly believe that investing in the redevelopment of this area is about so much more than just new buildings and living spaces and hoping change will come,” said Rev. Alvin T. Armstead, pastor of UMMBC. “We have an obligation to use this as an opportunity to tangibly improve the mental, physical, spiritual and financial lives of the people in our community.”
The project was spearheaded by UMMBC’s “Beyond the Sanctuary” initiative and was made possible by partnerships with Liberty Atlantic, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and other investors, including APG Capital and Catalyst Opportunity Fund.
Liberty Atlantic is a Black-owned N.C.-based firm that is the primary developer for the project, general contractor, and will serve as property manager. When discussing the redevelopment, Jaron Norman, CEO of Liberty Atlantic, said they started working with United Metropolitan in 2020 when the project was still in the development stage. Norman said leadership at the church laid out the plans and they executed. He said the project is more than just building apartments. In addition to serving as general contractor for the project, Liberty Atlantic also manages the property.
“Our efforts go above and beyond the traditional redevelopment approach of building units and filling them with residents who can maximize value for the developer. We believe there is an approach that emphasizes and prioritizes the health and well-being of our residents, while also creating value for our partners and investors,” Norman said. “We believe healthier, more productive workers are a win for everyone.”
Metropolitan Village will be constructed in several phases and will have over 300 units when completed, including one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and townhomes.
Early in the planning process many community members believed the new construction was the beginning of gentrification in the neighborhood, but Norman said he’s been doing this for a long time and that was never part of the plan. If you visit Metropolitan Village, you will see that the makeup of the neighborhood is the same as it has always been. Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more affluent residents and investments.
“I’ve been doing this a very long time and I’ve done other projects like this and partnered with churches and part of it is just understanding the business and how to magnate your cost and also how to source capital that is low cost,” Norman said. “We worked with impact investors and we didn’t have any subsidies that helped us price every unit below market rate.”
In addition to every unit being priced below market rate, about 15% of units are set aside for deeply low-income households and are primarily held by residents who lived in the neighborhood before redevelopment. When available, a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with appliances at Metropolitan Village can go for as low as $550 a month.
“We priced those units so that everybody who lived in the previous development (Garden Courts) could still live in the same neighborhood,” Norman said. “We relocated those tenants from Garden Courts to brand new apartments in Metropolitan Village at the same price and some even ended up paying less.”
Units in Metropolitan Village have also been reserved for students who attend Winston-Salem State University (WSSU). Students had the opportunity to apply for the available units last fall and those who were chosen were scheduled to move into the three-bedroom, three-bath townhomes on Jan. 4. The townhomes are fully furnished and include a kitchen, living area, and washer and dryer units. To apply, students have to be junior, senior or graduate students and in good standing with the university. Students are also required to maintain at least a 2.8 GPA.
The next phase of Metropolitan Village will include more than 130 new apartments, retail space, and the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity (MACHE). The vision for MACHE is to be nationally known as a preeminent health equity center that reduces health disparities in the most underserved population. Norman said this phase will serve as an anchor for the entire project.
“We’ll have healthcare on site, fitness, a kitchen where we’ll have cooking classes, and an event space,” Norman continued. “I think that will help us take that next step, but so far so good. I’m not satisfied yet because there is still work to be done, but we’ll get there.”
To help with the redevelopment and pump even more life into the community, last spring The Winston-Salem Foundation, a community foundation that supports charitable programs across the city, announced a $1 million investment into Metropolitan Village.
When discussing the investment in a press release, LaTida Smith, president of The Winston-Salem Foundation, said, “So many of our neighbors are burdened by housing costs and are paying more than 30% of their income on rent. This investment brings together many partners from across the community to provide affordable housing for nurses, teachers, and other essential workers, while simultaneously investing in a neighborhood that has experienced systemic disinvestment. The Foundation is excited to invest our assets in this innovative way.”
Long-time East Winston resident Daniel Jenkins said he was happy to see the redevelopment come to life. Jenkins admits he was skeptical at first, but as he saw the project begin to take shape, he saw how it gave new life to the community he has called home for over 50 years.
“When I would pick my grandson up from the Career Center, sometimes I would come early just to see how construction was going and it really got me excited,” Jenkins said. “I remember when the people who lived in this community were proud of where they lived and what they had. I think this will help East Winston get back to that.”