Old North News

The city of Fayetteville is considering a rezoning request for a tract near Highway 295 that would allow up to 960 apartment units to be built on the property behind the new Amazon warehouse.

While having hundreds more homes available would be welcome in Fayetteville, rental rates are going to be appreciably higher than they would have been if the complex had been built a year ago. Fort Bragg is a big draw for bringing soldiers and their families to the area, sparking the need for new housing, but the hope for affordable housing might be an unrealistic expectation in today’s economic conditions.

“With the pricing of things now, you’re probably going to have to have two incomes because so much of our income hasn’t increased at the same rate of some of these other things,” Ben Stout, president of Ben Stout Construction and Stout Land Development, told CBS 17 News. 

The cost of materials has gone up between 30 and 50% in recent months, meaning it will cost the Miami-based One Real Estate Investment significantly more to construct the building.

Stout told CBS 17 News that supply shortages, increasing supply costs and rising demand will likely keep pushing the price up. Developers are going to have to get creative and start building smaller housing to keep it affordable, he said.

“I think a lot of developers, big developers, not just the local developers, have come into the market,” Stout told CBS 17 News. “With that and the rising cost, they can’t effectively eat those rising numbers.”

The rezoning request was passed as a consent agenda item during last week's city council meeting, giving the green light to the housing project.