ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — An affordable housing community has opened along Asheville’s Tunnel Road corridor, bringing 60 new apartment units to residents earning lower incomes, including young adults transitioning out of foster care.
Mountain Housing Opportunities celebrated the opening of Star Point Apartments with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, July 28, at the 16 Restaurant Court property. Community leaders, project partners and stakeholders gathered to mark the completion of the affordable housing development.
Star Point includes a mix of efficiency, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments for residents earning up to 60 percent of the area median income. Twelve units are reserved for young adults aging out of foster care.
The development is located near Asheville’s East Side commercial corridor, providing residents with access to jobs, retail, restaurants, grocery stores, Asheville Mall and public transportation. Bus stops serving both eastbound and westbound routes are located within about one-tenth of a mile of the community.
MHO COO Tara Irby thanked the project’s partners for helping bring the development to life.
“By being our partners on Star Point Apartments, you have already answered our calls for urgency in support of affordable housing,” Irby said in a statement. “You rallied behind a vision to help provide safe, stable housing along a transit corridor and in close proximity to thousands of service industry and hospitality jobs.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony included remarks from MHO President and CEO Geoffrey Barton, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, Brian Flanagan of RBC Community Investments, David Kautter of First Citizens Bank, Lynn Pinter of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and Irby.
Star Point Apartments takes its name from Star Lanes, the first racially integrated public business in Asheville. The community also honors Matthew Bacoate Jr., a former MHO board member and longtime civil and housing rights advocate.
In 1959, while serving as night manager of Star Lanes Bowling Center on Kenilworth Road, Bacoate arranged for Black customers to bowl on Sunday evenings when the alley was typically closed. He later welcomed white patrons to the business, helping integrate the bowling alley five years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed.
MHO said the name Star Point reflects its commitment to expanding access to safe, stable and affordable housing across Western North Carolina. The community room at Star Point is dedicated in Bacoate’s honor.
The project received a 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit award in 2023 and secured about $16 million in financing commitments in 2024.
Funding partners included First Citizens Bank, RBC Bank, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, the City of Asheville, Buncombe County, Dogwood Health Trust and NeighborWorks America.
O’Brien Architecture served as the project architect, Civil Design Concepts provided civil design services, and WeaverCooke was the general contractor.
Founded in 1988, MHO is a nonprofit affordable housing developer serving more than 2,000 households each year across Western North Carolina through affordable rental housing, home repairs, affordable home construction and down payment assistance programs.