The former Budget Inn motel outside of downtown Winston-Salem on the corner of Peters Creek Parkway and W. Academy Street will soon be the site of 72 new affordable housing units.
The project is the work of the Peters Creek Community Initiative which is part of The Shalom Project, a nonprofit that works to alleviate poverty.
Eileen Ayuso is the executive director of the organization. She says to purchase and demolish the $1.2 million site, they received a $600 thousand grant from the City of Winston-Salem, $300 thousand in funds from a private foundation, and negotiated a $600 thousand loan from Forsyth County.
“We'll work towards paying that back as the project potentially makes money down the road," she says. "The other thing that we had to commit to for the county, and I think it's not a bad thing, is that it would remain affordable housing for 50 years."
Ayuso says once demolition is complete, they'll begin working on financing and raising funds for construction. The project is estimated to cost $10 million. The hope is for the housing units to be completed by 2021.