Fayetteville has secured a landmark $25.1 million federal investment to overhaul one of its most historic and long‑disinvested corridors, becoming the first community in eastern North Carolina to win a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant.
The award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced Wednesday by the city, will anchor a sweeping redevelopment plan years in the making and is expected to leverage more than $531 million in public and private funding.
The grant will fund the next phase of the Murchison Choice Transformation Plan, a comprehensive strategy to replace aging public housing, expand supportive services, and rebuild neighborhood infrastructure along the Murchison Road corridor.
The plan centers on the redevelopment of two aging public housing complexes near Fayetteville State University: Murchison Townhouses and Elliott Circle.
Mayor Mitch Colvin called the award transformational.
“This Choice award will be a game‑changer for the Murchison Road corridor and the families who call it home,” Colvin said in a press release. “For years, our residents have shared their vision for a stronger, safer, more connected neighborhood—today, that vision starts becoming reality.”
The project will be led by the city’s Economic and Community Development Department and the Fayetteville Metropolitan Housing Authority (FMHA). The agencies are partnering with Pennrose, a nationally recognized mixed‑income housing developer, serving as the housing lead and Urban Strategies, a national nonprofit with extensive experience in Choice Neighborhood projects, as the people‑focused lead, according to the press release.
The plan also includes partnerships with Fayetteville State University, Cumberland County Schools, and other local institutions.
A Historic Win After Years of Uncertainty
The award caps a fast‑moving application process that began in December, when Fayetteville officials learned HUD had unexpectedly opened the grant window despite federal cutbacks that cast doubt on whether the program would run this year.
At a February community meeting at Senior Center East, Chris Cauley, the city’s economic and community development director, told residents the announcement caught staff off guard.
“We were not sure that this grant was going to come out,” he said at the time. “So we have a lot of ground to cover.”
The city last applied in 2024, when the maximum award was $41 million. Fayetteville was finalist but was ultimately passed over.
That application cost between $300,000 and $400,000 to prepare, mostly covered by a planning grant. This year, Cauley requested $100,000 to complete the work—and said HUD’s feedback from the previous round gave Fayetteville “a very strong chance.”
That confidence proved well‑placed. The award marks the first time HUD selected a community in eastern North Carolina for a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, according to the press release. Previous awards in the state went to Durham and Winston‑Salem.
Federal lawmakers—including Republicans Rep. David Rouzer, Rep. Richard Hudson, Sen. Thom Tillis and Sen. Ted Budd—backed the city’s application, according to the city’s press release.
In an April letter to HUD Secretary Scott Turner, Rouzer wrote that Fayetteville’s proposal was “both competitive and urgently needed.”
“This funding will help bring new housing, stronger infrastructure, and greater opportunities to one of Fayetteville’s historic neighborhoods,” Rouzer said in the announcement. “I was proud to support the City of Fayetteville’s application, and I’m pleased to see this significant federal investment become a reality.”
What the Plan Will Build
The Murchison Choice Transformation Plan will replace all 60 units at Murchison Townhouses and 110 units at Elliott Circle one‑for‑one and create 323 new mixed‑income apartments across the public properties sites.
Housing will include modern amenities—in‑unit washers and dryers, pantries, gardens, improved lighting, a fitness center, art murals, a park and picnic areas.
This new housing development piece of the plan will take up the bulk of federal funding and translate to $95.7 million, according to the press release. All eligible residents will have a right to return to new units once construction is complete.
Nicole Brown, operations director for Urban Strategies, said earlier this year that each household will be paired with a staff member to help them understand their rights, maintain eligibility to return, and access education, employment, and health services.
The plan also includes 35 new for-sale homes, exterior improvements to approximately 35 existing homes, improvements to the façades of 30 commercial buildings, new trail connections, gateways, signage, and placemaking investments—or improvements to public spaces designed to make them more meaningful, accessible, and engaging for the community.
Under the plan’s people‑focused framework, a suite of supportive services will be deployed to address individual household needs, connecting residents to education opportunities, workforce development, job skills training, economic self-sufficiency programs for seniors, and continued community engagement.
A Corridor Shaped by History
City documents trace the Murchison Road corridor’s history: a community shaped by segregation in the 1950s–70s, where Black residents were forced to live and where a once‑thriving network of Black‑owned businesses flourished. Integration led many businesses to relocate, and by the 1970s, disinvestment and stigma took hold.
Today, the corridor is home to a high concentration of low‑income residents, many living in aging public‑housing communities like Murchison Townhouses and Elliott Circle.
The townhomes, according to city records, were built in 1970 and are described by the city as being in “poor to fair” condition and in need of significant rehabilitation to provide “safe and sanitary” housing.
Elliott Circle, with its barracks‑style apartments, has many vacant units and is considered a “hotspot of negative activity,” city records said.
The Choice grant aims to reverse that trajectory.
What Comes Next
HUD will work with the city and FMHA to finalize grant agreements and begin pre‑development work.
City officials say the award builds on more than $20 million already invested in the Murchison neighborhood’s long‑term revitalization effort—including infrastructure upgrades, housing development, workforce programming and improvements to public spaces that make them more meaningful, accessible and engaging for the community.
The end goal, the press release said, will transform the area into a more walkable, connected community through coordinated housing, workforce development, and neighborhood revitalization.
Construction is expected to begin in late 2027 and unfold in phases over eight years, according to the city’s February briefing.
Crystal DePietro, assistant executive director of FMHA, told residents in February that they would move in stages—starting with new units at Elliott Circle and ending with Murchison Townhouses.
During redevelopment, residents will be temporarily relocated into other public housing or provided vouchers.
Government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader can be reached at rheimann@cityviewnc.com or 910-988-8045.
