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Tenants fear displacement after Cary land hits market for over $1 million per acre

Restaurant owner Edith Liborio, as always, greets her customers with a smile and “buen dia” as they pile into Cary’s Esmeralda Grill for the lunch rush each day.

But her warm demeanor belies a growing anxiety.

The land on which her restaurant sits just went up for sale. Now, she says, her future is that much more uncertain.

In total, roughly 38 acres of prime real estate on the periphery of east Cary— one of the last remaining large tracts inside downtown limits — hit the market Wednesday. The property, six parcels in all, lies at the corner of E. Chatham Street and SE Maynard Road.

It includes a mobile home park, a pond and retail buildings: Chatham Estates, Chatham Square Shopping Center and Maynard Plaza.

The property’s owner, Curtis Westbrook Sr., owner of the real estate management company Westbrook & Associates, says he’s selling because of health issues. It could fetch as much as $50 million, according to its listing agent, Lee & Associates CEO Moss Withers.

That’s more than $1 million an acre.

“We’re already speaking with a handful of solid buyers and feel this will move quickly,” Withers told The News & Observer Wednesday, the day the listing went live. The land sale was first reported by the Triangle Business Journal earlier this month.

Aerial view of roughly 38 acres of prime real estate in east downtown Cary – one of the last remaining large tracts inside of town limits – which hit the market this week. The property, six parcels in all, lies at the intersection of E. Chatham Street and SE Maynard Road.
Aerial view of roughly 38 acres of prime real estate in east downtown Cary – one of the last remaining large tracts inside of town limits – which hit the market this week. The property, six parcels in all, lies at the intersection of E. Chatham Street and SE Maynard Road.

Cary’s explosive growth

The sale’s interest — and its hefty price tag — is another sign of Cary’s rising status in recent years as companies and developers flock to the area and developable land becomes more scarce. The property is about a six-minute drive from Fenton, a new mixed-use development that opened to much fanfare last year.

The listing also underscores the town’s growing affordable housing crisis. Along with the region’s explosive growth, home prices and rents continue to skyrocket. Many low-income workers say it’s becoming almost impossible to live in the same community that they serve and help make prosper.

For tenants like Liborio, who runs her restaurant out of Chatham Square and lives in the adjacent mobile home park, fear remains high that they could now be displaced with more development in east Cary.

For Liborio, it means facing the double-whammy of losing both her livelihood and home, all at once.

“I’ve poured my life savings into the business for the last seven years,” she said in Spanish, through a translator. “Many of the people living in the mobile homes come here to eat. It’s my business. It affects my whole life.”

The property accommodates 140 mobile homes. Residents estimate as many as 600 people could be forced to relocate if the land sells to a developer. Many are worried about leaving behind friends, neighbors, schools and jobs.

“It’s hard. Where are we going to go?” said Maria Guadalupe Garcia, 38, a ministry assistant who lives at the park with her husband and three children.

They pay $400 to lease a lot at the park. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Cary is $1,577 — up 15% year-over-year, according to rental listing site Zumper.

“When I read the headlines, they say Cary is blooming. Yes, it’s blooming for some people, but not for all people,” Garcia said.

Photo of Chatham Square signage. The shopping center is included in a 37-acre parcel of land in Cary that hit the market on March 22.
Photo of Chatham Square signage. The shopping center is included in a 37-acre parcel of land in Cary that hit the market on March 22.
Edith Liborio, owner of Esmeralda Grill in Chatham Square, is worried that she faces displacement. The land on which her restaurant and home sits just went up for sale in Cary this week.
Edith Liborio, owner of Esmeralda Grill in Chatham Square, is worried that she faces displacement. The land on which her restaurant and home sits just went up for sale in Cary this week.

A lifetime’s work

Across the street, Westbrook, the property’s owner and landlord, works from the office building that he built on E. Chatham Street. The building’s number, alongside his family’s name, are carved into the building’s brick façade: 701 Westbrook. From his second-floor corner office, he has a bird’s eye view into Esmeralda Grill, the shopping center and some of the mobile home park that existed before even he’d come to town.

“The person I bought the park from had started it in the 1950s,” Westbrook recalled. It’s been there, he said, “a long time.”

Westbrook came to Cary as a country boy from Newton Grove, 40 miles southeast of Raleigh, and started up his real estate company as a “one-man” office in the late 1960s, he said, just as nearby Research Triangle Park was beginning to take shape. Over the span of four decades, he amassed the large assemblage of commercial properties, making more than $1.5 million in net operating income in 2022 alone.

But it’s time to phase down, he said, and spend more time with his grandchildren. “I’m 82. I’ve had two major heart operations in the last year and a half.”

On March 16, the firm said, it emailed tenants to inform them of Westbrook’s intent to sell. It also tried to assuage tenants’ concerns over the possible change of ownership, noting any purchase would be a “slow process and could take years to complete.”

Westbrook said he’d like to see someone buy the property to manage, like he’s done for so many years, rather than to redevelop. But ultimately, he said, it’s not up to him.

“I love my tenants, and they love me. But I don’t have any control over it. It’s purely up to who buys it. It would make no sense for me to put conditions on the sale.”

Five of the six parcels are zoned general commercial and could allow for up to 12 stories of development, Westbrook said. The other parcel, the mobile home park, is zoned residential multifamily.

“My property has gotten old and needs to be revived,” Westbrook said. “Everything changes. This is just a continuation of Cary’s growth.”

Tenants mobilize

Tenants at Chatham Estates, however, are hoping that they will be able to stay and also benefit from the town’s growing wealth.

Most of the park’s residents are Latino and emigrated from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras. Many are laborers or service workers — cleaning, landscaping and building the new high-end developments that are quickly going up around town.

Last week, about 70 people stood outside in the cold at the park’s entrance to discuss the property’s impending sale. They say they don’t begrudge Westbrook for selling the property at this stage in his life, but they want to know their rights.

Katia Roebuck, an organizer from the nonprofit ONE Wake, attended to field some of their concerns. Her group has successfully helped other mobile home residents find resolutions, like those who faced displacement at Wake Forest’s Wellington Mobile Home Park in 2021. In that case, she said, the developer ended up paying relocation costs.

Roebuck said she’s already reached out to town officials to address residents’ concerns. She hopes to set up a meeting in April.

“They’re going to be displaced. This is a fact,” she said, unequivocally. “The residents would like to stay, but everybody’s smart enough to know that that’s not what’s going happen, especially with the price that the owner is asking for.”

She wants to work with the town of Cary and a future developer “for some type of assistance for them.”

Morgan Mansa, director of the town’s housing and community partnerships, said she’s aware of the property’s listing and the town has been contacted by “a few groups” regarding concerns.

“We have a keen eye on this,” Mansa said, “and welcome the opportunity to work with any potential new owners to communicate Cary’s housing vision and needs.”