Rezoning near NC State puts households at risk as owners seek seven-story tower
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- Rezoning request could clear more than 60 households for a seven‑story student tower.
- Proposal would demolish 48 garden apartments, a duplex, and multiple small homes.
- Filing says residents would get 120 days’ notice and $2,500 relocation aid.
A new rezoning request along Gorman Street near NC State could clear more than 60 existing homes to make way for a seven‑story student housing project, raising fresh displacement concerns in one of West Raleigh’s last pockets of lower‑cost housing.
The owners of an 11‑parcel assemblage — Rhyne’s Gate LLC, Weikan Holdings LLC, Darrick Seconi and Loubna Tazi — have filed to upzone the 3.55‑acre site from three to seven stories. It’s one block south of Western Boulevard, directly across from NC State’s South Campus.
Attorney Collier Marsh of Parker Poe, who is representing the applicants, submitted the request, citing surging university enrollment and demand for walk‑to‑campus housing. He describes the aging Rhyne’s Gate apartments and surrounding single‑family rentals as “ideally suited” for redevelopment.
But the proposal would require demolishing 48 garden‑style apartments, a duplex and several small homes — a cluster of naturally occurring affordable housing, or NOAH, that currently houses dozens of people. The loss of NOAH has become a growing regional trend: Raleigh has shed roughly 35,000 naturally affordable units in the past eight years, according to the city’s 2025 Affordable Housing Plan.
In West Raleigh today, NOAH rents typically fall in the $900 to $1,300 range for one‑bedrooms and $1,200 to $1,600 for two‑bedrooms, depending on age, condition and proximity to NC State. These are older, unsubsidized properties — not income‑restricted units.
According to the filing, existing residents will get 120 days’ notice before early termination of their leases. The developers would provide $2,500 in relocation aid for each displaced household.
Marsh did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The proposal is slated to go before the planning commission on Tuesday, June 23.
City planners have recommended approval, saying the rezoning would increase market‑rate housing near multiple transit lines and support future Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) by allowing taller, denser residential development.
A closer look
Student‑housing rents near NC State have jumped 30.5% since 2020, according to Moody’s Analytics — the fastest rise among the Triangle’s major universities — as luxury projects continue to dominate the market. (Moody’s defines student housing as off‑campus apartments where at least half of tenants are college students.)
Among them: The Hub Raleigh, a 2,195‑bed tower under construction at 111 Cox Ave., which is slated to open this summer; and The Standard at Raleigh, a 707‑bed mixed‑use project on Hillsborough Street completed in 2019 where current rents range from $799 to $1,885 per bedroom, according to the property’s website.
Both projects are within a mile of the Gorman Street rezoning site, which has a total assessed value of $10.1 million, according to property records. It’s estimated that 60-plus households are living on the site.
Here’s what’s included:
Rhyne’s Gate Apartments
- 48 units, all 2‑bedroom garden‑style apartments
- Built in the 1980s
- Occupies 2.32 acres
- Owned by Rhyne’s Gate LLC
- This is most of the site and the clearest source of displacement.
Nine small single‑family parcels, 0.09 acres each
- All owned by Weikan Holdings LLC
- These are older single‑family homes, some likely used as rentals for students or low‑income tenants.
One additional parcel with a duplex + single‑family home
- Owned by individuals (Darrick Seconi and Loubna Tazi).
What’s next
The planning commission has 60 days to review a rezoning case and issue a recommendation to city council, supervisor Hannah Reckhow said in an email.
Once that recommendation is made, the application moves to a city council agenda to be scheduled for a public hearing.
Both hearings are “opportunities for public comment,” she said.
