Brooks asks for committee to vet moving farmers market

Published 9:19 am Thursday, January 9, 2025

Smithfield Town Councilman Jeff Brooks has asked Mayor Mike Smith to create a committee to vet the idea of relocating the Smithfield Farmers Market.

Two years after pledging $1.4 million toward moving the market to the Grange at 10Main development slated for the western edge of the town’s historic district, Isle of Wight County supervisors voted in November to officially transfer that money to the county’s Economic Development Authority, which has agreed verbally to serve as landlord for a brick structure and outdoor lawn that per the latest plans would include 48 covered market vendor stalls, a two-story 6,500-square-foot restaurant, public bathrooms and up to six rental retail spaces totaling 3,882 square feet.

The market would anchor the 267-home Grange, which Smithfield’s Town Council voted 3-2 in 2023 to approve for mixed-use zoning. Brooks and Smith cast the two “no” votes.

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Grange developer Joseph Luter IV and his father, former Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph Luter III, offered land and $1 million in 2022, conditioned on the town and county each putting up $1.4 million, to build a permanent home for the weekly market, which currently operates seasonally in the Bank of Southside Virginia parking lot on Main Street. The county is operating under a one-year extension of its lease agreement with the bank.

Smithfield’s award-winning farmers market, which has operated out of the bank parking lot since it began as the Olde Towne Curb Market in 2003, is “an extremely valuable asset and I believe it needs the proper attention so that we end up with a terrific product for our vendors, but more importantly, our citizens and taxpayers,” Brooks said. “Obviously, location and funding will be the major focus.”

Brooks recommended newly elected council members Mary Ellen Bebermeyer, Darren Cutler and Bill Harris be appointed to the committee. Town Attorney Bill Riddick advised that Smith, as mayor, has the discretion to form the proposed committee and name its members.

Smith did not act that evening to form the committee but told The Smithfield Times on Jan. 8 he would be in touch with Brooks to form the committee and appoint its members.

“My staff and I are delighted and eager to work with Council members towards a better understanding of the needs, contributions, history and value of the Farmers Market,” said Judy Winslow, director of the county’s and town’s shared Tourism Department that oversees the Farmers Market. “We are encouraged that together with the Farmers Market Advisory Board, we will be able to fulfill our goal of cementing a safe, productive, and vendor/visitor-friendly permanent location for this iconic small business incubator and revenue generator.”

A prior Town Council, in 2022, pledged the town’s own $1.4 million contribution, but to date Smithfield hasn’t followed Isle of Wight’s lead in transferring that money to the EDA. 

Bebermeyer, Cutler and Harris, who each won seats in the 2024 election, said at an October candidate forum that they opposed the prior council’s commitment. Smith and Councilwoman Valerie Butler each voted in favor of the commitment in 2022, though Smith at last year’s candidate forum said his opinion had changed and he now sees value in keeping the market where it is.

Luter IV, in a Nov. 26 letter to the town, said his LSMP LLC holding company for the Grange has “no interest in moving forward on this project without the support of the Town Council” and had asked to meet with the council once its new members were seated.

We have been in touch with the new council and look forward to meeting with them face to face later this month,” Luter IV told the Times.

“When we started this project nearly four years ago, we never envisioned the controversy this project would generate,” Luter IV had written in his letter. “We engaged Town officials and business leaders from Day One to identify components and amenities the Town and County needed, and those that fit the long-term strategic plan for the Town. At the least this project is a long-term solution for a world-class Farmers Market. Smithfield has a steep history as a ‘food town.’”

Several market vendors in November and December urged the town and county to move forward with their commitments to fund the indoor-outdoor marketplace, asserting excessive heat, inclement weather and a lack of room to accommodate more vendors and patrons has been an impediment to their sales. Others, including some of the would-be committee members, have raised concerns over the impact of moving the market on downtown businesses that currently benefit from the foot traffic.

Luter IV’s letter states the first phase of the Grange, which has yet to break ground, would include all roadwork and 235 parking spaces to support the market, as well as a recreation area, including four pickleball courts.

“This will be built and given to the Town and to the designated entity that owns the Market with the county,” Luter IV’s letter states. “We will spend over $18 million to develop this initial phase and believe we are giving the Town an asset worth $4 million to $5 million. It also includes parking for Main Street Baptist Church and the Schoolhouse Museum.”

If the town codifies its prior $1.4 million commitment, Luter IV’s letter states construction could begin as early as this fall, with the market opening by the spring of 2027.