Star Point is a 60-unit affordable housing community located off Tunnel Road at 16 Restaurant Court in Asheville, North Carolina. Star Point will provide deeply affordable housing for renters earning up to 60% of the area’s median income, offering a mix of efficiency, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments. One key feature of Star Point includes a set-aside of twelve units designed for young adults aging out of foster care. Located on East Asheville’s primary commercial corridor, Star Point is ideally situated for an affordable multifamily community. Residents will enjoy walkable access to retail, employment, dining, and services, including two grocery stores and the Asheville Mall, as well as convenient transit connections, with eastbound and westbound bus stops within one-tenth of a mile.
Addressing the many partners behind Star Point’s success, MHO COO Tara Irby offered these words of gratitude:
“By being our partners on Star Point Apartments, you have already answered our calls for urgency in support of affordable housing. 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, our essential workforce who currently must make long commutes to work because of the lack of nearby affordable housing options. You helped shape a new, innovative community partnership.”
Attendees heard additional remarks from Geoffrey Barton, MHO President & CEO; the Honorable Esther Manheimer, Mayor of the City of Asheville; Brian Flanagan, RBC Community Investments; David Kautter, First Citizens Bank; Lynn Pinter, NCHFA; and Tara Irby, MHO COO.
Star Point Apartments is named for Star Lanes, the first racially integrated public business in Asheville. It is in honor of Mr. Matthew Bacoate, Jr., former MHO Board Member and long-time civil and housing rights advocate. In 1959, as night manager of Star Lanes Bowling Center on Kenilworth Rd, Bacoate Jr. arranged for Black customers to bowl on Sunday evenings when the alley was normally closed, and one night, welcomed in a group of white patrons to integrate the business five years before the Civil Rights Act was signed. Star Point’s name reminds us of our ongoing commitment to dignity, inclusion, and justice in our work to expand access to housing that is safe, stable, and affordable across western North Carolina. Star Point’s Community Room is dedicated in Bacoate Jr’s honor.
Star Point Apartments wouldn’t be possible without our financing partners, contractors, and city and county leaders, and the community members who showed up to celebrate with us. Thank you all.
Special thanks to Star Point’s financing partners: First Citizens Bank, RBC Bank, North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, City of Asheville, Buncombe County, Dogwood Health Trust, and NeighborWorks America. Star Point received a 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credit Award in mid-2023, followed by approximately $16 million in financing commitments in 2024. O’Brien Architecture served as the project’s architect, Civil Design Concepts served as the civil design partner, and WEAVERCOOKE served as the construction partner and general contractor.
