Buncombe County Applies for Funding to Build 645 Affordable Homes on Ferry Road

A 173-acre Ferry Road tract that Buncombe County bought in 2015 to attract a Deschutes Brewery campus, a deal that never materialized, may finally have a purpose: the county filed two federal housing tax credit applications and a disaster relief funding request to finance 645 homes and apartments on the property near Bent Creek.

Of the 645 proposed units, 270 would be affordable rentals, 115 would be affordable for-sale small homes, and 260 would sell or lease at market rate. Combined, the 385 income-restricted units could represent one of the largest additions to affordable housing stock in Buncombe County in years, in a market strained by price growth and post-storm displacement.

County spokesperson Lillian Govus confirmed the county submitted two 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) applications to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, targeting families and seniors. LIHTC is the federal government's primary mechanism for subsidizing affordable rental construction, offering tax credits to developers in exchange for income and rent restrictions on the finished units. The county also applied to Asheville's CDBG-DR Affordable Multi-Family Housing Construction Program, which draws on federal Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief dollars dedicated to expanding the city's affordable rental supply.

Neither stream is guaranteed. The 4% LIHTC program typically requires pairing with tax-exempt bond financing, and CDBG-DR awards are discretionary and often heavily oversubscribed. Assistant County Manager Tim Love described the county's strategy as stacking multiple public and private funding layers. "We're moving forward and trying to leverage other people's money," he said.

Love said the maximum the project could receive from block grant recovery funds is $10 million. "We've submitted applications for CDBG-DR funding, Helene recovery funds," he said. Beyond those grants, the county expects to pair public low-interest loans with private investment from a developer, if a formal agreement is eventually signed.

That prospective developer is Urban Atlantic, a D.C.-based firm that county commissioners approved a Memorandum of Understanding with in June 2025. Staff have been negotiating specifics since then, including how much of the 173-acre parcel will be preserved as green space rather than built out. No agreement beyond the MOU has been finalized.

Love's timeline is measured in years, not months. The earliest possible site work, he estimated, is around 2029, pending financing awards, environmental and permitting reviews, and county approvals. Residents should expect multiple public meetings and hearings before ground breaks. "We're on it now," Love said.

The county paid roughly $7 million for the Ferry Road land in 2015.