Smithfield’s Town Council got its first look on Jan. 27 at a revised concept for the Grange at 10Main that would reduce the density of the 57-acre development slated for the western edge of the town’s historic district by 65%.

Developer Joseph Luter IV’s latest plan calls for 93 homes, 45 of which would be townhouses, and would scrap the three-story apartment buildings that had been part of the 267-home concept a prior Town Council split 3-2 to approve in 2023 for mixed-use zoning. Council members Mary Ellen Bebermeyer, Darren Cutler, Bill Harris and now-Mayor Mike Smith, who each won seats in the 2024 election, campaigned on a platform of reining in growth and said at an October candidate forum that they opposed the prior council’s commitment of up to $1.4 million to move the Smithfield Farmers Market to the Grange.

“We had a highly contentious process in getting the Grange approved and I’m well aware that many that sit before me today were opposed to that project,” Luter said. “We have zero interest in moving forward without the support of the council. Nothing that my father has ever done, that I’ve ever done, in this town has been intended to be in defense, or in objection to the citizens and the leadership of the town of Smithfield.”

Luter’s father, former Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph Luter III, in 2022 offered land and $1 million conditioned on the town and Isle of Wight County each putting up $1.4 million to build a permanent home for the weekly market that currently operates seasonally in the Bank of Southside Virginia parking lot on Main Street.

The county, which jointly operates the market with the town, is currently operating on a one-year extension of its lease with the bank. In 2024, two years after pledging its own $1.4 million, the Board of Supervisors voted to officially transfer its share to the Isle of Wight Economic Development Authority, which has agreed verbally to serve as landlord for a brick structure and outdoor lawn that would house indoor-outdoor market vendor stalls, a two-story restaurant, public bathrooms and rental retail space. The town has yet to follow Isle of Wight’s lead in transferring its share to the EDA.

 

What’s changed?

Luter said his revised plan, which now shows an L-shaped market building rather than the elongated version in prior illustrations, still calls for the town to follow through with its $1.4 million pledge. He said he’d also potentially ask the town to fund a brick wall that would front Main Street.

“We’ll take care of the rest,” Luter IV said.

Luter III had offered the town $6 million in May, conditioned on the town matching the amount and moving its market to the Grange. Former Mayor Steve Bowman said the money was intended at the time to fund the wall and brick paver sidewalks in town-owned right-of-way fronting the Grange. Bowman facilitated the transfer of funds during a May visit with Luter III at Luter’s Palm Beach, Florida, home, but after six months of inaction by the council, Luter IV requested – and the town agreed – to return the funds.

Among the controversies that plagued the Grange’s 2023 rezoning process was a remark Luter IV had made that year to the town’s Planning Commission about potentially seeking “reimbursement” for certain “public” components of the Grange, such as the cost of extending utilities – something Luter IV told the new council he’s not planning to request from the town this time around.

Luter’s latest plan also calls for roughly 20 to 25 acres, which he estimated at $6 million in value, to be deeded to Smithfield to be developed, or not developed, as the Town Council sees fit.

Luter said the proposed reduction in density is expected to equate to a 41% reduction in traffic volume compared to the 2023-approved concept, which the Virginia Department of Transportation expected as of that year to add roughly 4,700 daily vehicular trips spread across the site’s four access points from Cary Street, Grace Street, Main Street and a right-turn-only ingress from Route 10.

 

What hasn’t changed?

The revised plan still calls for the same four access points to the Grange. Harris, himself a Grace Street resident, questioned the need for access from Grace given the substantial reduction in density.

“It’s the natural flow of the existing road system,” Luter replied, adding, “The way we designed this, there will absolutely be some increase down Grace Street, but it’s going to be far less than what’s already been approved, significantly less.”

The revised plan also still calls for a three-story, 42-foot-tall hotel that would measure 66,000 square feet and include roughly 100 rooms.

“We have an interested party with a national brand for that hotel,” Luter said.

The town-owned Schoolhouse Museum would remain at its present location adjacent to the proposed hotel, as it would have under Luter’s 2023 plans.

While the 2025 concept has for the moment eliminated 10 covered but outdoor vendor stalls, the market building would still include a minimum of 24 indoor-outdoor stalls each measuring roughly 120 square feet that could be left open to the outdoors or fitted with garage doors as an earlier concept had shown, Luter IV said.

The plan, Luter IV said, is still to “condominiumize” the market building so that the owner of the restaurant would be able to purchase that space while paying a common area maintenance, or CAM, fee for shared spaces and leaving the rest to be owned and leased by the EDA.

The homes would also still be among the highest-priced in the county. Tip Brown of Venture Realty Group, who’s been working with Luter IV on the project, estimated rent would range from roughly $2,500 to $2,900 per month for the townhouses, which would be offered for sale or for rent.

“We have a group of people that would be interested in taking at least half of them and holding them to rent them because we … think that there is good demand for that,” Luter IV said. 

Luter IV had said in 2023 that the Grange is intended to appeal to prospective employees of the town’s anchor employer, Smithfield Foods, as well as the new 50-bed Riverside Smithfield Hospital on track to open by early 2026.

Luter IV estimated the sale price would be roughly $400 per square foot for homes measuring 1,500 to 2,600 square feet, which would equate to a price between $600,000 and $1 million. As of the original concept’s 2023 approval, attached units were estimated at the time to start at $615,000 and detached homes at $685,000. 

The price points prompted concern from Cutler and Town Councilwoman Valerie Butler.

Butler said the only component of the Grange that could potentially have been made into affordable housing was the apartments had they been built with state or federal low-income lending. In 2020, Luter IV had written to the Town Council that his father envisioned “a high-quality development” with multifamily housing “for all income levels.”

“African Americans make up 19% of the population in Smithfield, but yet 31% at the poverty level,” Butler had said in response to a citizen’s comment ahead of Luter’s presentation, citing statistics included in the town’s comprehensive plan, which states 31% of Black town residents fell below the federal poverty line as of 2022. Across all races, 17% of town residents were living below the poverty line compared to just under 10% statewide and 12% nationwide, according to the 2022 plan, though census data as of 2024 estimated the percentage in poverty at 7.3%. Smithfield also has a significantly higher median household income, estimated at $110,182 in 2023 according to census data, compared to a $79,325 median household income across the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, according to Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization data.

“I’m an owner of an affordable housing company. … and if you want us to build affordable housing on this particular piece of property it’s something we can absolutely do,” Luter said.

 

What’s next?

Town Attorney Bill Riddick said that because Luter IV’s revised plan is a drastic change from what’s currently approved, he’d have to apply for an amendment to the conditional mixed-use zoning granted in 2023. That would entail making a formal application to both the Planning Commission and Town Council, and each body having to hold a public hearing before voting on the matter.

The council plans to submit written comments and questions to Town Manager Michael Stallings by Feb. 10 to relay to Luter IV and discuss the revised Grange again at its next committee meetings on Feb. 24.

Luter IV, noting his family’s plans for the Grange have been in the works since 2020 when his father purchased and razed the former Pierceville homestead that occupied the land, urged the new council members to clearly communicate their intent before he spends time and money effectively going through the rezoning process again.

“If you’re not supportive and you don’t want to do it, don’t drag us along,” Luter IV said.

The council also has the option of giving its assent to the 2023-approved Grange concept, which would allow that project to proceed to groundbreaking without going through the rezoning process again.

The land currently consists of the remains of the foundation and parking lot for the former Little’s supermarket, which Luter III also had razed in 2020, prompting Bowman to express concern over what would become of the western entrance to the town if Luter IV’s revised plans were not approved.

“It worries me considerably that if not this, with this design, then what? What are we ultimately going to ask for to go there?” said Bowman, who remains a member of the council despite no longer being mayor.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 10:46 a.m. on Jan. 28 to clarify Councilwoman Valerie Butler’s remarks and at what point in the meeting she made them.