Affordable homes open in Concord community. It’s just the start to help revive Logan
In the Logan neighborhood of Concord, the largest and oldest Black community in the city, the homeownership rate is below 40%.
Learning of that stat in 2022, a housing nonprofit called WeBuild Concord decided to work to reverse that statistic, according to CEO Patrick Graham.
It involved a plan to revitalize the neighborhood in a way that benefited long-term residents in danger of displacement in the midst of living in one of the fastest-growing cities in North Carolina.
A portion of that revitalization plan is finally finished.
On Wednesday, Logan residents and WeBuild willcelebrate the completion of the Lincoln Street Townhome project, 26 for-sale mixed-income homes. Some will be sold at affordable prices, some will be market rate and others will be lease-to-own, creating a pipeline for future homeownership.
All of them signify a big change in the neighborhood.
“This lot was empty for 20 years… and this was really designed to be a focal point in this community forging its revitalization. This is the first step,” said Graham. “They wake the place up a little bit and I think it will continue to wake this area up.”
Concord’s rapid change
From 2010 to 2020, Concord grew by 33.1% and that growth has continued through last year.
In 2010, the city had a population of about 79,066, according to census data. A decade later, that jumped to 104,885 people and in 2024, it increased again to 111,863.
While population growth increases economic growth, it also puts a strain on housing needs. Especially affordable housing.
Affordability is an issue across Cabarrus County. About 27% of the county’s 20,341 homes are considered cost-burdened, according to the North Carolina Housing Coalition. Being cost-burdened means a family pays more than 30% of their income toward housing.
Affordable and stable housing is a concern that’s exacerbated in areas like Logan which have a proximity to downtown centers where people want to live.
“The Logan community had its own sort of identity in terms of having stores and shops well past the ‘60s, and that ended,” Graham said. “You had a lot of investor types purchasing in the area, leading to that decrease in homeownership…
“As we looked at the stability of Logan and its proximity to downtown Concord, we knew we needed to try to accelerate ownership in that area without gentrifying it.”
Logan’s history and stability
The Logan neighborhood was named after the Rev. Frank T. Logan, a former slave and minister from Greensboro. He later became principal at the Concord Colored School in 1891, which was later called the Logan School, an historically Black institution, in 1924.
That was the start of the neighborhood’s creation. To preserve its history, city officials began the process of making Logan a national historic district in 2022.
In the interim, the changed neighborhood continued to change.
While the area was once self-sufficient with stores, schools and churches, it soon became filled with empty lots.
Those empty lots prompted the revitalization plans WeBuild and the city have for Logan. But the line between revitalization, gentrification and ultimately displacement is thin and often blurs.
“What’s the purpose if you actually end up building it for someone else?… We want to give people the opportunity to continue living here because most of the time what happens is that things get better after they’ve moved away,” Graham said.
“That’s where the townhome idea developed because you could get ownership and a little bit of density at the same time, putting a dent in that low homeownership rate.”
Lincoln Street Townhomes in Concord
Wedged between the dull red brick barrack-style duplexes of Concord’s Housing Department’s Logan Homes that line Melrose Drive SW and Malvern Drive SW, lies the Lincoln Street Townhomes.
It’s a square development on 2 acres that took over a lot that had been empty for 20 years, Graham said. The project broke ground in 2022 and cost about $6 million, with some of the cost being covered by American Rescue Plan dollars.
The townhomes form a perimeter around a parking lot equipped with two electrical vehicle charging stations.
Each townhome is about 1,300 square feet with three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bedrooms.
Nineteen of the homes will be sold or rented out at affordable prices. The other five will be sold at market rate.
For a further breakdown, 16 of the townhomes will be sold to those making between 30% and 110% of the area median income. For a family of four, that’s an income between $26,500 and $116,600.
Five of the units will be leased to own, opening up opportunity for residents who may be interested in homeownership but not yet ready to take the step.
Several of the units will have deed restrictions, maintaining the affordability for 99 years. And some units will go into WeBuild’s community land trust, further maintaining the affordability aspect.
The large mix of incomes is one way to ensure revitalization includes current and new residents.
“Every economic mobility study you’ve seen, the issue that stretches across all boundaries when it comes to the lack of mobility has been segregation,” Graham said. “We want to make sure that a part of that community stays affordable even as we sort of desegregate it income-wise… You’re really talking about a mixed-income community.”
More change to come for Logan
The revitalization of Logan is just beginning.
Concord is working on revamping the public housing across from the Lincoln Street Townhomes. In partnership with WeBuild, the plan is to create a development with a mix of ownership opportunities and rentals.
Graham said the plan is still in the processing phase, so it’s unclear what the housing breakdown will look like.
All current residents will have the opportunity to move into the units first, Graham said.
That also falls in line with WeBuild’s priority measures. The organization works on a point system where displaced or current residents are prioritized in terms of housing applications or receiving assistance.
“The goal is to always be helping the community develop,” Graham said.
WeBuild is also working on more affordable housing nearby. The nonprofit purchased the historic Kerr Street Baptist Church in 2023 and is turning it into a mixed-income project that will include a community conference space and an incubator space for local artists.
It’s a slow churn, Graham acknowledges, but as long as inclusive revitalization remains the end goal, it was worth it.
“This was a grueling two years because I got to slowly hear everything that could go wrong and did,” Graham laughed. “What I love most is that with everything… people will walk in here and they won’t have any idea about any of that.
“All they’ll see is that there’s this new beautiful edifice in their community. That there’s new life being breathed into this community.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 5:57 AM.
