By Kylie Marsh
Kylie.marsh@triangletribune.com
DURHAM – North Carolina Central University students interested in real estate got face-time with a local affordable housing developer.
A bus carrying the NCCU Eagle Real Estate Group arrived at the active construction site for the Villages of Hayti Tuesday afternoon. The organization connects students looking to enter real estate with networking opportunities, professional development and entrepreneurial support.
The group met F7 Development President James “Monte” Montague at the site to learn about what goes into developing affordable housing and starting a development company. “I like to speak to a lot of young people to let them know what’s possible,” Montague said.
At the beginning of the project, Montague said there “was a lot of distrust” between the neighbors of the Villages and Durham Community Partners, the coalition of organizations developing the site.
“People inherently don’t trust developers because a lot of them don’t care about the long-term health of the community,” he said.
The Villages of Hayti, in Durham’s historically Black Hayti neighborhood, is a multiuse development slated to open in January 2028.
Montague grew up in Southeast Raleigh in what he describes as “the hood.”
He told the students he didn’t want his company to gentrify the surrounding neighborhood after seeing it happen in his community.
“You can develop quality affordable housing without gentrifying,” he said. “You don’t have to gentrify to ‘clean up’ an area. I wouldn’t be proud of gentrification.”
Montague said he’d rather have a commercial plot of land remain vacant than accept liquor stores, dispensaries or tobacco shops. “It’s a choice,” he said. “There is pressure to lease out to the first company that calls you.”
However, Montague’s vision for the Villages of Hayti is to include student housing, cafes and, hopefully, even a grocery store. Coming from an area where his peers were engaging in criminal activity to make money, Montague told the students he had a vision he could develop communities into something those peers deserved.
He recalled getting 17 rejections from banks when trying to finance his first development. At that time, the Internet and social media – even LinkedIn – didn’t exist.
But he asked the banks for feedback, which he incorporated into his project proposal to finally secure funding from the 18th bank he approached. “Then they were like, ‘I can’t believe no one else approved this,” he said.
He also told the students that networking isn’t just attending a planned event to pass out business cards and ask the people you meet to do something for you. It’s about investing in those people and relationships.
“It’s ‘let me take you to lunch. Let’s get to know each other,’” he explained. “It’s ‘I value this relationship.’ Add value to the person.”
