Raleigh renters given one month to move out ahead of development near Dix Park
The Christmas lights are still up on the red house at 1215 Lake Wheeler Road, but it sits empty.
It’s one of a handful of modest homes across from Dorothea Dix Park that is now vacant.
The renters who lived there were given 30 days to move out to make way for a $600 million, mixed-use project. The roughly dozen businesses in the area were told the same thing: Move by the end of December before eventually being granted another month.
While the developers won’t break ground on the project until the second half of 2022, the trees and shrubs are already coming down.
“Dorothea Dix Park, does that need to be gated by a price tag?” said Francisco Ceron-Sagastume, one of the renters who had to move. “Does it need to be gated by privilege or gated by economic status? I think that’s horrible. I think that’s toxic. And I think that’s disturbing.”
In mid-December, Raleigh-based SLI Capital and New York City’s Mack Real Estate Group announced they were buying the 7.5 acres between Lake Wheeler Road, South Saunders Street and Hammell Drive for $34.75 million for two-high rises capped at 20 stories.
The Raleigh City Council approved the rezoning in October, which capped apartment units to 1,200, 600,000 square feet of office space and 60,000 square feet of retail. The project will include public art and the installation of a city bikeshare station.
The developers declined to discuss how the project would affect longtime residents who would be displaced, The N&O previously reported. An email and phone call to Atlas Stark, the company that notified the renters, were not returned.
The Fuller Heights area is one of the few remaining affordable neighborhoods in Raleigh, and housing advocates have worried about the gentrification likely to occur as Dix Park is developed.
Navigating complex systems
Dennis Carter, owner of Anything With A Plug Recycling, said business owners knew they were going to be kicked out eventually, but it was “a kick in the pants” when they were told on Nov. 30 they’d have to be out by the end of the year.
He has since spent the last few weeks trying to get a phone call returned.
“I was like, hitting the pavement hard and stressing myself out, not eating and taking care of myself and just kind of being a wreck,” he said. “And you couldn’t get a hold of Realtors, you know, brokers and stuff. It was just been pretty much impossible.”
His recycling business has been located off of Hammell Drive for seven years. It’s one of about a dozen businesses located in the area.
“It’s the third owners I’ve dealt with since I’ve been at this property,” he said. “So we knew it was going to happen, but we had no idea that it would happen in the middle of, you know, one of the worst surges of a pandemic, let alone when everybody who makes decisions takes a vacation in the last few weeks of the year.”
Ceron-Sagastume, 32, went to school at N.C. State University, and has stayed in Raleigh, off and on, since graduating. He’s lived at the two-bedroom home with his domestic partner Migel Saldana since early 2018 with a monthly rent of $1,100.
“Before we moved into it, it was actually on the market in November and we were considering buying it but, as a first-time buyer, I chickened out, because I just didn’t know the process.”
For now, Ceron-Sagastume and Saldana are staying at a family member’s home in Oregon before coming back to Raleigh to “face the reality” of their situation.
“I do plan on coming back to Raleigh. That is home for us,” Ceron-Sagastume said. “That’s our plan. However, obviously, Raleigh is having a hard time trying to keep us around.”
They plan to try and buy a home but worry about not being able to compete in the hot market that’s seeing home prices soar. If they end up renting again, they have to go through the credit check, security deposit, first month’s rent and pet deposit again.
He’s worried about his neighbors, calling them Latinx families who work “blue-collar jobs.” In the Latinx community there can be a lack of financial literacy and difficulty navigating complex support systems.
“We’re not aware of those things,” he said. “So we just usually take it on our shoulders and do our best to keep going forward.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 5:58 PM.
