$1 million-homes are coming to Enderly Park — more than triple the median cost
Charlotte’s Enderly Park neighborhood is near and dear to developer James Scruggs.
It’s an area the CEO of Kingdom Development Partners has watched grow in both positive and negative ways. His latest project, he said, will be a positive for the historically Black neighborhood.
The Enclave at Enderly Park is a 15-home subdivision along Plainview Road and Tennyson Drive, where prices start at $875,000 and go up to $1 million. It’s some of the most expensive homes Enderly Park has ever seen.
The prices are nearly triple the cost of the median home price of about $350,000 over roughly the past year for the community, according to data from the Redfin real estate site.
As of today, there are about 43 homes for sale in the neighborhood, according to Realtor.com, ranging from $174,000 to $1.9 million. That wide range benefits the community, Scruggs believes. It signals that the area is diversifying in terms of housing stock options and income levels.
“There was no new construction in Enderly Park 25 years ago,” he said. “What has changed now is this mixture of new and old, of socioeconomic classes… It’s adding value to the neighborhood.”
But for some residents, that mixture of classes and range of housing costs signals gentrification. It leaves them wondering whether they’ll be able to reap the benefits of the changes.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” especially in Enderly Park, said Shamaiye Haynes, co-director of the nonprofit QC Family Tree, a nonprofit focused on housing and community needs. Haynes is also president of the Greater Enderly Park Neighborhood Association, although she isn’t speaking for the organization.
“Some of my neighbors look at the gentrification that’s happening and people will say, well the neighborhood is safer and that could be true, except who is it safe for?” she said. “…It’s beneficial to somebody but who?”
Gentrification versus mixed-income neighborhoods
Longtime residents have spoken out about how rising home prices are one of the ways they eventually get pushed out of their neighborhoods.
It’s something Haynes continues to see in her work with Family Tree.
In 2023 when Mecklenburg County performed property revaluations, over 350,000 residential properties saw a rise in values. Some saw their property values triple, according to a Charlotte Observer analysis. That could be a good thing — if the resident can afford the accompanying higher property taxes.
Many of those homes are in predominantly Black neighborhoods, like Enderly Park, Wilmore and Biddleville, all of which have experienced historic disenfranchisement, gentrification and ultimately displacement.
“We have elderly residents who are barely holding on,” Haynes said. “Some of them are having to consider their retirement plans just because of their tax burden.”
Changes also affect renters in single-family homes. The higher property taxes could get pushed onto the renter, including in Black neighborhoods where corporate landlords have purchased homes to rent to them.
Scruggs acknowledged that displacement is occurring throughout Charlotte. But displacement isn’t his goal. It’s about creating mixed-income neighborhoods.
“We have to talk about the displacement and gentrification, but we also have to talk about the value that you can add in these neighborhoods that really help change people’s lives,” Scruggs said. “Would I rather have my aunt Mabel only receive $50,000 in equity or $300,000 in equity? …I never want to push the people out. What I want to do is create economic mobility.”
Creating mixed-income neighborhoods is one factor in increasing economic mobility, Scruggs said. It eliminates poverty concentration and increases exposure to different socioeconomic classes, both of which lead people up the economic ladder.
But two things can be true at the same time. When a neighborhood begins to change, or gentrify, because of the higher costs of living, the shift in culture begins to wear on long-term residents, moving them down the economic ladder.
“Not all development is bad, but too much development does cause some pain points,” Haynes said. “I definitely don’t want people to feel unwelcome, but I also know our community has been disinvested for a very long time.
“To see my neighbors now scrambling to pay for places that nobody else wanted not even that long ago, it’s a really hard thing to have to sit with.”
Finding a neighborhood balance
But it doesn’t have to be that way, Scruggs said.
“I believe that in these neighborhoods, you can create economic mobility,” he said. “But you have to also educate people about the things that’s out there so that they can stay in these neighborhoods and not get displaced.”
That’s also where Scruggs’ newest venture, Ascension Community Development Corp., comes into play. It’s a nonprofit started by Scruggs and backed by Hugh McColl, the former CEO of Bank of America.
Ascension plans to build affordable for-sale homes alongside market-rate properties, Scruggs said.
The nonprofit’s first project will be The Legacy at Paw Creek, an 89-unit subdivision with town homes, duplexes and triplexes. About 70% will be for sale at market-rate and the others will be for households earning 80% of the area median income. For a family of four, that’s an annual income of $84,800.
The nonprofit also offers classes on financial literacy, wealth building, homebuying and home maintenance.
Part of the education Ascension offers also goes over some of the city- and county-run tools that residents should use, including programs that assist with property tax payments or home repairs, Scruggs added.
The nonprofit also offers a property tax relief program to prevent displacement.
Advising community members about anti-displacement programs and guides to homeownership is how Scruggs believes low- to moderate-income residents can begin climbing the economic ladder. “We are rooting for the neighborhood,” Scruggs said. “And one way is through education.”
Back at the Enclave at Enderly Park
Each Enclave home has a modern farmhouse vibe — an ode to the area’s farmland beginnings. Though these houses are much larger, ranging from about 2,000 to 3,000 square feet with three or four bedrooms.
Four of the 15 homes in the Enclave have already sold and one is under contract, according to the community’s website. One is still being completed.
About four more are on the market and the rest will follow in the upcoming weeks. Scruggs is also planning a community walkthrough this spring.
That’s an idea Haynes can get behind. She said that if more developers, along with the new neighbors, immerse themselves into the community, the idea of change may not be as hard to accept.
The Enclave, Scruggs said, is “one part of a larger strategy balancing market-rate and affordable projects across our city to ensure everyone has a path to homeownership and long-term equity.”
Without both types of housing, Scruggs said, some people won’t be able to attain and reap the benefits of Charlotte’s growth.
“It’s a mixture. We have to do both,” Scruggs said. “We have to think about the bigger picture. The bigger picture is not just the value of the neighborhood that’s going up, but when you have a true mixed-income environment where the classes are now different you learn from each other...
“By avoiding economic segregation, we create neighborhoods where families can grow, learn and thrive together. That’s the blueprint for generational wealth.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 7:37 AM.
