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Not long after a contractor in the Willow Oaks neighborhood lost several half-built homes to foreclosure, resident Mary Lewis began to notice a change at the abandoned construction sites.

“It wasn’t even a conscious recognition about it going downhill,” said Lewis, a resident of the four-year-old development and a professor at N.C. A&T.

But last February, when construction stopped, she started noticing broken windows in the houses. Lewis, who has lived in her home for three years, heard that people were breaking in to steal plumbing or wiring in the vacant houses. That wasn’t supposed to happen in the $90 million development.

“Then all of a sudden one day, I’m looking around and saying, 'Hmm. Jeez. Things are looking better,’” Lewis said.

Willow Oaks, she believes, had just dodged what could have been a serious blow to its progress as Greensboro’s premiere urban redevelopment.

Chalk it up to Carolina Bank, a local bank willing to take a chance with its money, its resources and its reputation to finish the homes.

“It’s because they took over at that point and started caring,” Lewis said of the bank. “I didn’t know who did. I just saw a change for the worse and then a change for the better. I’m thrilled.”

Willow Oaks was once the site of the notorious Morningside Homes housing project. In addition to being infested with crime and drug dealers, Morningside will be forever remembered as the site of the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings that left five people dead.

It was torn down several years ago to make way for Willow Oaks. Its mix of leased town houses, condominiums and affordable single-family houses has returned the traditional charm of a historic city neighborhood with people of diverse incomes to the area. Buyers can get top-quality homes at affordable prices, typically between $126,000 and $199,900.

Such an ambitious plan depends on solid backing from city government, developers and bankers. When any element unravels, the entire project is threatened, said Robert Braswell, president and chief executive officer of Greensboro-based Carolina Bank.

Sandra Anderson Builders had been one of the key builders at Willow Oaks, a community that Greensboro envisioned as a rebirth for the land off McConnell Road. But the company, owned by then-Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat, ran into financial problems and ultimately declared bankruptcy, leaving the eight homes with Carolina Bank.

When his bank had to foreclose on the homes, Braswell said, it had to face the odds of their future in an unfinished state.

“We made the decision that to sell them unfinished would ... be detrimental to the neighborhood,” he said.

The homes were finished during the summer and three are sold.

Braswell believes the bank may break even on the investment.

Patty Trout, the bank’s vice president who handled its takeover of the eight houses, said executives knew that a wrong step by the bank could delay the community’s progress.

“Whatever action we took could have damaged this community,” she said.

Jacqui Graves, the Realtor who has worked with many Willow Oaks properties, said with roughly two-thirds of the development’s 450 homes and apartments built, it was important to continue the growth.

The neighborhood, with owners and renters of varying incomes and professions, will continue to be strong, said James Cox, the local manager of the project for Urban Atlantic, Willow Oaks’ developer.

With loan programs and homes to suit all incomes, Willow Oaks will continue to be a place where business owners, school teachers and college professors can live side-by-side.

“I could make $45,000 a year,” he said, “you could make $80,000. We could buy the same house.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com