Metropolitan Village
Metropolitan Village is a 198-unit affordable and workforce affordable multifamily development in East Winston-Salem, NC, which includes 13,000 SF of ground floor commercial space. The development is spread across 4 separate buildings, the first of which delivered in December 2023.
Metropolitan Village is located in a Low- to Moderate-Income (LMI), historically Black neighborhood, which was redlined in the 1930s and physically split from the city’s economic center by a 6-lane highway constructed in the 1940s. The developer designed Metropolitan Village as part of a larger, community-led redevelopment plan to revitalize East Winston-Salem. In addition to affordable housing, Metropolitan Village addresses the neighborhood’s core service and amenity gaps, including access to healthcare. 8,000 SF of ground floor commercial space has been leased to Wake Forest’s Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity.
Metropolitan Village came to fruition via a powerful coalition of community stakeholders, including Atrium Health, the state’s largest hospital network and a co-investor in the project, and the United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church (UMMBC), an East Winston community pillar, which initiated the project and provided land at a significant discount. The project is estimated to deliver in Q2 2025.
East Winston-Salem, a historically Black community, was redlined in the 1930s and physically split from the city’s economic center by a 6-lane highway constructed in the 1940s.
Over the past 20 years, the west side of the highway, the core of downtown, has seen ~$1 billion worth of private investment. In contrast, East Winston has seen only $7 million of investment since the 1980s, roughly 0.7% in double the time. Only a 10-minute walk from downtown —with meaningful public transit and initiatives underway to increase walkability— Catalyst sees a resounding, affirmative investment case for East Winston’s revitalization, centered around healthy, community-driven growth that mitigates against displacement.
RIGHT: Looking west, over Metropolitan Village, towards Downtown Winston-Salem
We looked across the highway and said, we need some of what’s happening over there to
happen over here. This project is about bringing together the right partners to revitalize East Winston.
Liberty Atlantic Group
Lyvonne Bovell, Chief Operating Officer
Metropolitan Village serves as model for ground-up housing development, addressing a core and prevalent issue with new construction projects that require demolition of existing structures: displacement.
The project tore down old, dilapidated affordable housing (right), temporarily relocating residents nearby. The former housing consolidated deeply low-income units into one area, resulting in a concentration poverty.
Metropolitan Village creates a balanced ecosystem of housing, supporting the needs of the existing community, while also facilitating a path for revitalization and growth. Once the first buildings delivered, families from the former housing moved back into the community in brand new apartments at Metropolitan Village, with little to no increase rent.
15%
55%
8K SF
Dr. Maya Angelou —renowned poet, civil rights activist and professor at Wake Forest University— was committed to reducing health disparities in America’s most underserved populations. In 2002, she founded Wake Forest’s Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity (MACHE). MACHE’s mission is to dismantle systemic inequity and support the health of Black and Brown communities.
Metropolitan Village has leased the majority of its 13,000 SF ground floor commercial space to MACHE, which will open in 2025. MACHE aims to dismantle systemic health disparities in underserved populations, promoting health equity through interdisciplinary and community engaged research, health education and training, health promotion and literacy, as well as social justice initiatives. MACHE’s space in Metropolitan Village will include a service navigation hub, private care rooms for onsite treatment, a fitness center and yoga studio, and flexible space for community collaboration, engagement and cohesion.
Metropolitan Village wins Multifamily Development of the Year in the 2024 CoStar Impact Awards for Winston-Salem
A new apartment complex development in East Winston-Salem seeks to walk the fine line of addressing generations of underinvestment in a historically African American community, while trying to avoid gentrification and pricing out residents.
By collaborating with major local employers like Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, the project ensures that essential workers —teachers, utility workers, and nurses’ assistants— have access to affordable housing, thereby enhancing growth and diversification within the community.
CoStar Impact Awards Judge
Margarita Kaprielyan, Associate Professor of Finance at Elon University
Jaron Norman stands at the forefront of commercial real estate, orchestrating over $3B in purpose-built multifamily investments throughout his expansive 20+ year career. His expertise encompasses a broad spectrum of real estate finance, accounting, programming, and project management in both the public and private sectors. Celebrated for his innovative insights in economic development and specialized economic zone design, Jaron is a recognized authority in the field. Before establishing Liberty Atlantic Group, he honed his skills as the Controller & Division CFO at a notable publicly-traded student-housing REIT.
Catalyst communicates impact outcomes through recognized frameworks for thriving communities: the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) & the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH).
Metropolitan Village most closely aligns with the following SDGs and SDOH:
