Old Fayetteville public housing complex replaced by new apartments

Grove View Terrace, which was built in the 1940s, now goes by the name Cross Creek Pointe Apartments.

After the last resident moved from Grove View Terrace in 2018, the city razed the one-story, cinder-block apartments and replaced them with more than 270 apartments in 18 two- and three-story buildings on the site.

"It provides more residents than the previous project that we had, but look at it – this is like market-rate housing," Mayor Mitch Colvin said.

"I like the environment. It's much bigger than where I used to stay," said Mary Simmons, who moved into Cross Creek Pointe Apartments last year.

Simmons said she had relatives who lived in Grove View Terrace, which was known as a crime-infested area.

"It was kind of rough around the edges back then," she said. "But you know, since they built those new apartments around here, it's much better."

Colvin said crime in the community has gone down and spirits have been lifted by the redevelopment.

"It's easy to gentrify communities, to take the people who are there [and] remove them and replace them," he said, "But it's a different story and a different aspect when you just improve their housing situation and still keep the core of the community."

Residents have been moving into the complex for months, but because of the pandemic, there was no big celebration or ribbon-cutting ceremony.