An 86-unit apartment complex known for some of the cheapest rents left near North Carolina State University could soon be torn down to make way for a seven-story, up to 483-unit student housing tower. Raleigh City Council is set to vote Tuesday at 7 p.m. on the rezoning that would allow developer Gilbane to replace Rhyne's Gate Apartments, two houses and a quadruplex on a roughly 3.5-acre Gorman Street site west of campus.
Current zoning on the site allows buildings up to three stories and 187 units, according to The News & Observer, which first reported on the case. Gilbane is asking the city to raise that limit to seven stories so it can build around 300 apartments, with the flexibility under the rezoning to construct up to 483 units total. Collier Marsh, who represents Gilbane, has said most of the property's current residents are college students, though the paper notes student housing is also used by the non-student workforce, since private student housing developments are generally open to everyone under fair housing law.
City planning records describe the rezoning request as case Z-14-26, proposing a shift from Residential Mixed Use-3 to Residential Mixed Use-7-Conditional Use, according to the City of Raleigh. The conditional-use zoning would also bar certain uses on the property, including cemeteries, vehicle fuel sales and payday loan facilities. Public notices reviewed by Engage Raleigh specify that the assemblage includes Rhyne's Gate's 48 units along with nine single-family homes and a duplex, a somewhat broader accounting of displaced housing than the two houses and quadruplex cited elsewhere.
Rents Have Climbed as the Old Complex Ages
Rhyne's Gate currently advertises two-bedroom apartments starting at $1,225 a month, a jump from the roughly $1,065 that two-bedroom units including utilities fetched there in 2020, according to a historical listing on Zillow. That increase tracks a broader trend: student-housing rents near NC State have climbed more than 30% over six years, per Moody's Analytics data cited by the paper. Raleigh's median two-bedroom rent overall stood at just under $1,700 as of 2024, based on U.S. Census estimates.
For comparison, The Standard at Raleigh, a 707-bed student building on Hillsborough Street completed in 2019, currently charges rents ranging from about $800 to nearly $1,900 per bedroom, the newspaper reported. Peyote Perryman, who has weighed in on the Gorman Street proposal, said student housing can be the last affordable option left for the local workforce, even as those rents keep rising.
Affordable Housing Payment Draws Criticism
The proposed project includes no dedicated affordable housing units on-site. Instead, Gilbane plans to make a voluntary payment to the city's Affordable Housing Fund once its plan is approved, an option built into Raleigh's Unified Development Ordinance for developers who accept density bonuses in transit-adjacent areas, according to the City of Raleigh. The city's policy lets developers either designate 20% of bonus units as affordable for households earning 60% of area median income or make a cash contribution instead.
Gilbane's contribution would total $80,000 if it builds around 300 apartments, with the exact amount depending on the final unit count. One attendee at a community meeting called that sum almost nothing, the paper reported. Nicholaus Neptune has said relocation assistance and increased density can still be a net positive when affordable housing gets disrupted, while Perryman has voiced support for the idea that adding units, even market-rate ones, could improve affordability across the wider area over time.
Tenant Notice and a Local Precedent
Current Rhyne's Gate residents would receive 120 days' notice before any early lease termination, and developers would provide $2,500 in relocation aid per household. Perryman has pushed for higher relocation assistance than what's currently proposed. The Raleigh Planning Commission recommended approval of the rezoning in June.
The case echoes another recent West Raleigh rezoning that Hoodline reported in July: City Council's approval of Chicago-based Peerless Development's seven-story, 713-bed complex at 1523 Crest Road, which came with a $115,000 affordable housing contribution, 90 days' tenant notice and $2,500 in per-unit relocation assistance. Even if Tuesday's vote goes forward, the project still needs site-plan approval, building permits and the start of construction, a process the newspaper notes can take years.
The Bigger Picture Driving Density
NC State's enrollment has grown from 36,304 students in Fall 2020 to 39,259 in Fall 2025, according to the university's Data and Analytics office, fueling demand for housing near campus. That growth is unfolding against a countywide backdrop: a statewide study by Bowen National Research for the NC Chamber Foundation projected Wake County will face a shortage of 110,689 housing units by 2029 across rental and owner-occupied markets.
Figures presented at a Raleigh Citizen Advisory Council forum and reported by the Triangle Tribune put the county's affordable rental shortage at 60,000 units, with workers needing to earn at least $33.65 an hour to afford a standard two-bedroom apartment. Raleigh's 2026–2030 Affordable Housing Plan sets a goal of producing 1,345 subsidized affordable units and reaching functional zero for unsheltered homelessness by 2030, according to the city. Gilbane is also part of a joint venture building a fully affordable, income-restricted $93 million, 200-unit project at 326 Chapanoke Road slated for completion in 2028, according to Multi-Housing News, underscoring how the same developer is working both sides of Raleigh's housing market.
