Residents, officials celebrate start of Cleveland Avenue transformation in Winston-Salem.

Spurred by a $30 million grant to the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Choice Neighborhood initiative is starting with the construction of 84 apartment units on the site of the former Brown Elementary School.

So many people wanted to take part in the groundbreaking that folks had to handle the shovels in shifts.

They included people from the housing authority, local and state elected officials, housing finance officials and Richard Baron, the co-founder and chairman of McCormack Baron Salazar, the company that is spearheading the development with the help of another company called Urban Strategies Inc.

But a lot of the focus on Tuesday was squarely on the residents of Cleveland Avenue Homes who are going to not only live in better housing, but will be able to take advantage of resident support services designed to improve their quality of life and give them more hope for the future.

“I am so excited because it is finally happening,” said Sabrina Brown, a resident of Cleveland Avenue Homes, who spoke during the groundbreaking ceremony. “It is going to be a wonderful thing. It is going to be a new development and just wonderful.”

The development will proceed in five phases, of which the Brown Street construction is but the first. But the Brown Street construction is key, officials say, because having new apartments for current residents of Cleveland Avenue Homes to move into will minimize the amount of disruption as the old units are torn down and replaced in future phases.

East Ward Council Member Annette Scippio saw a link of hope connecting the former school, which served as an educational center for Black Winston-Salem, and the new development that will rise on the site.

“I want us to keep hope alive for our residents,” Scippio said. “We are so valued, because the spirit of the people who planted on this soil is still here, and is going to be here. And I want you to see the beauty of it all because I can feel it right now … Can you see the streets with people walking, and happy and safe? I see it. Please see it.”

Plans call for the eventual construction of 406 housing units, with all Cleveland Avenue Homes residents who are in good standing having the right to return to the new housing. Cleveland Avenue Homes is a 244-unit development for low-income residents, but the new housing will have a mix of different income levels.

And the new housing will be bigger as well as better: Officials say the one- and two-bedroom apartments will be around a third larger than existing units at Cleveland Avenue Homes, and three-bedroom units will be 55% bigger.

The new community will consist of townhomes, garden-style apartments and a senior building with an elevator. Townhomes will have porches or stoops providing outdoor space. The three-story senior building will overlook a central park and include amenities for senior residents on the ground level including a fitness and community room.

Still, officials acknowledged that finding the money to do everything promised will be harder than it was before the pandemic, supply-chain issues and inflation started raising the expected costs.

Not everyone was happy with the plans on Tuesday: As the groundbreaking ceremony took place inside the tent, a small group of people held signs outside protesting what they called a lack of training for people who live in Cleveland Avenue Homes who might be able to take advantage of work opportunities associated with the construction.

“The beef here today is that there is no actual training for construction jobs” said Phil Carter, among the protesters. “Building houses and not building lives is not efficient nor sufficient if we are going to have a thriving community.”

Kevin Cheshire, the executive director and chief executive of HAWS, said multiple efforts are underway to hire residents and connect people with job opportunities on the site.

“We’ve got a team dedicating to hiring residents of public housing … who can connect people with the job opportunities on this site,” he said. “We’ve recently employed some public housing residents in trades … and will continue to do that.”

Baron said he was taking part in his 230th groundbreaking since he started his company 50 years ago to specialize in developing public housing.

“There’s love in the room and that is always a good sign,” Baron said. “We have never been more excited about a project. This has been a very difficult time, and all of you are to be congratulated … One could have never imagined, when we were part of the group that got the award, that we would then run right into the pandemic.”