As Cary has transformed from historic railroad town to one of North Carolina’s largest metros over the last six decades, a mobile home community lay tucked away at the intersection of Maynard Road and Chatham Street on the edge of downtown. Late last month, Curtis Westbrook Sr., the owner of the 37-acre tract that houses that community, Chatham Estates, plus the Chatham Square shopping center and other retail buildings, sent residents notice of the property’s imminent sale. They had six months to vacate and find new accommodations.
Located just north of the Fenton development, Chatham Estates was first listed for sale in 2023. That fall, families living in the 144-unit mobile home park told the INDY they didn’t know where they’d go if Chatham Estates was sold: “I don’t want to leave,” resident Nelida Arana Gaona, a stay-at-home mother of three told the INDY through a Spanish translator. “But… if they kick us out, there’s no choice right?”
Not much has changed in two years for the park’s roughly 700 remaining residents, many of whom say it will be difficult for them to move: rent for single family homes in Cary averages $2,000 a month compared to the $400 they pay to rent a plot in the park, and many of the mobile homes aren’t in good enough condition to relocate…