Tar Wolf team wins affordable housing competition
Students from Carolina and NC State joined forces to place first in the 2025 Bank of America challenge.
A team of students from UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University, including two first-year UNC MBA real estate students, won the 2025 Bank of America Affordable Housing Challenge in April.
The challenge is a three-month long academic case competition for undergraduate and graduate students to propose a housing development for low-income residents. The competition educates the students on the complexity of developing and financing affordable housing projects. It highlights student proposals that exemplify affordable housing development feasible in the current economic and fiscal climate and that demonstrate excellence in design and sustainability.
Dubbed Tar Wolf Developers, the winners included these students from Carolina and NC State:
- McLean Fonvielle ’26 (MBA), Carolina
- Veronica Harris ’25 (MCRP), Carolina
- Reece Hawk ’25, Carolina
- Michael Kavanagh ’26 (PhD), Carolina
- Nicole Rojo, ’26 (MBA), Carolina
- Daniel Knorr, NC State
- Elle Newkirk, NC State
The team’s developer partner was Legacy Real Estate Development, a national affordable housing developer with a pipeline of 3,800 housing units.
The team’s proposal was for a 1.75-acre site controlled by Legacy in Uptown Charlotte. The proposed development, named Chamber Commons, was a 244,000 square foot podium-style building with two levels of parking below three to five levels of apartments. The property had 178 units affordable to low-income individuals and families with income levels ranging from 30% to 80% of the Mecklenburg metro area median income.
