Greensboro approves funding for first phase of Regency Inn housing project

A long-vacant North O’Henry Boulevard property that once housed the Regency Inn moved another step toward becoming affordable housing, but the project still has to clear several hurdles before construction can begin.

Greensboro officials selected DHIC, Inc. for the former motel site at 2701 North O.Henry Blvd. after a review committee considered seven applications. The nonprofit’s proposal calls for two phases and 114 total living units at an estimated cost of more than $29.5 million. The first phase would add 54 senior units in a single building, followed by 60 family units in three buildings. Twelve of the apartments are planned to meet ADA accessibility standards, and the homes are intended for households earning 30, 50 and 60 percent of area median income.

The site has spent years in transition. Built in 1957 as a 58-unit motel, the Regency Inn later served as emergency housing for some of Greensboro’s unhoused residents. The structure was demolished in October 2024, then used temporarily for the city’s Summer Doorway Project and later for pallet shelters.

The Greensboro City Council approved the sale of the property to DHIC for $350,000 on Sept. 16, 2025, a key step that gave the redevelopment a clearer path. DHIC has said it could begin construction in spring or summer 2027 if rezoning, tax-credit applications and financing all come together. Until then, the former motel remains one of Greensboro’s more visible reminders of how slowly difficult properties can move from blight to reuse.

The Regency Inn plan fits into a broader city push to add housing and reuse land more productively. In April, the City Council approved more than $8.1 million in combined federal program funds and local bond dollars for six affordable multifamily developments. One of those projects is DHIC’s Ellington Place, a 75-unit new construction project at 2710 N. O. Henry Blvd., close to the Regency Inn site.

City leaders have tied both projects to Housing GSO, the 2020 plan that set goals for affordable rental homes, neighborhood reinvestment, homeownership access and supportive housing. The city’s newer Road to 10,000 initiative aims to support 10,000 new housing units by 2030. For a corridor that has carried a vacant, setback-laden property for years, the measure of success will be whether this financing and land transfer finally lead to construction, not another delay.