GREENSBORO, N.C. — However, one North Carolina A&T grad is hoping to find middle ground by building modern, but affordable town homes.
"Why wouldn't East Greensboro be the next part of Greensboro to kind of have a revitalization," Jerome Myers questioned.
It's no secret that city leaders are hoping for a movement in East Greensboro. Last September, they launched the campaign #InvestEast.
Myers is doing just that and investing in the area that gave so much to him in school. He graduated from A&T with a civil engineering degree.
His plan is to build modern, but affordable homes. He hopes the development will be on the six acres of land for sale off Penry Road.
Myers said he is looking for the prices of two and three bedrooms to be around $1,000 a month.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, North Carolina's affordable rent for average income is just under $1,700 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
For fair market rent, or for low income families, average rent is about $760.
News 2 looked into East Greensboro apartment complexes.
One of the cheapest is Brooke's Place. Two-bedrooms cost around $630 a month.
At Innisbrook Village, one of the higher end apartments, two-bedrooms can cost anywhere from $1,050-$1,400.
Myers hope his development can be that middle ground, and others will follow his lead.
"I think we're probably first in market, but I'm ok with that because I really believe in East Greensboro and what it, we can bring to the market and what I think the market is really hungry for," Myers said.
News 2 asked him how he plans to make this work.
Myers said he will eliminate some of the more costly amenities, like a swimming pool, to make the business model succeed.
"We'll be able to pick and choose the amentities associated with the units to control costs from a bill perspective, and that will also impact what we have to charge for rent in order to make the project work," Myers said.
As far as Technology Row's progress, they're currently in the rezoning process and should close on the land in November.