In the News

The Virginian Pilot
September 19, 2007

SUFFOLK/DEVELOPMENT

AFFORDABLE-HOUSING PROJECT PLANNED FOR FORMER FESTIVAL SITE
By Aaron Applegate

SUFFOLK
     Every October from about 1912 to the early 1980s, a 23 acre piece of land near downtown became the festive center of the city’s black community.

      The Tidewater Fair Downs drew thousands of people for harness racing, livestock and crop competitions, and a carnival that rivaled the winter holiday season as a gathering time for friends and family.

     Now, a Virginia Beach company is planning a 171-home affordable housing project on the vacant wooded site at 12th and East Washington streets.

     Called October at Fair Downs, the estimated $20 million project includes 72 condo-style units, 38 multifamily buildings, 48 townhomes and 13 single-family homes expected to sell for $150,000 to $200,000, said Sindy Clifton, senior vice president for project developer Lawson Homes.

     Estimated annual household income needed to buy the homes would range from $50,000 to $62,000, Clifton said.  There are no rental units.

     The project is separate from The Fairgrounds, a multimillion-dollar city project under way near the Planters factory off East Washington Street.

     Lawson Homes is in discussion with city officials about getting financial help for the project, said Steve Lawson, president of the company.

     “This is exactly the kind of housing the city purports to want, and the need is directly addressed in the city’s comprehensive plan,” Lawson said.  “This is going to be an undeniably great thing for this neighborhood.”

     City officials and Lawson will talk about the project at a public meeting at 4 p.m. today at City Hall. 

     A city task force on affordable housing that met for the past two years helped establish a city fund to encourage projects.  The fund has $345,000 in it.

     Councilman Charles Brown, who represents the area where the project is planned, said the city should contribute money to October at Fair Downs. 

     “The city has been preaching work force housing, and this is the first project we’ve had the opportunity to do,” he said.  “This is the right thing to do if we’re serious.”

     Lawson bought the property in December for $1 million from the Tidewater Fair Association Inc., a group of investors who for years helped organize the annual fairs.

     “To have an attraction like that once a year, it was almost like Christmas,” said George Richards, 84, who started going to the fair in the 1930s as a boy and later became an investor in the land.

     After the fair stopped, several proposals by the landowners for developing the property died because of lack of financing.

     Richards said he hopes the new project succeeds.

     “It’s a depressed section of the city, and hopefully that will change,” he said.
    
     “Once they start, I think that whole end of town will change.”

Virginian Pilot
March 14, 2007

Suffolk City Council

PROPOSAL WOULD FILL VOID WITH TWO REC CENTERS NEAR DOWNTOWN
By Aaron Applegate

SUFFOLK – After three years of uncertainty, the City Council has a plan, with a pot of money, to bring recreational facilities to neighborhoods near downtown.

    The area has not had a gymnasium or meeting place for children and teenagers since the popular Birdsong Recreation center was closed in 2004 to make way for the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, which opened in September.

     Some people have linked the lack of structured recreation to the youth violence that has plagued downtown Suffolk.

     Under the new plan, two new facilities will be built.
 
     One is an estimated $5.9 million project at the former East Suffolk High School, a historically black school closed since the 1970’s.  The building would be renovated to include computer and meeting rooms, and a small gym would be added.

     The plan falls short of the original estimated $12 million vision, which included an aquatic center, ball fields, a track and a big gym.  Money earmarked for that part of the project has been pulled from the city’s long-term plan.

     The second part of the plan calls for a large, $3.6 million gym and city office facility at Peanut Park, a mostly vacant park in a different part of downtown near the neighborhoods of Hall Place and Saratoga. 

     Completion dates have not been set for either project.  Money for East Suffolk will be available later this year and for Peanut Park next year.

     Councilman Charles Brown said he’s happy that the stalled East Suffolk project, which is in his Cypress Borough, is moving forward, but he is upset is won’t have a large gymnasium.  That’s going to Peanut Park in Vice Mayor Curtis Milteer’s Whaleyville Borough instead.
    
     With the recent political shift on the council, Brown said he has to be content with what he can get.  “When you don’t have the power, sometimes you have to recognize what you can win.  You’ve got to pick your battles.”

     Brown was part of the majority voting bloc on the council until July, when two new council members were elected, a new mayor was chosen and former City Manager Steve Herbert was fired.  Brown is in the minority now.

     Milteer, who fought for the Peanut Park gym, said the decision had nothing to do with politics.  He has argued that a gym in that location would better serve residents and would be cheaper than a large gym in East Suffolk.
   
     It’s not a borough concept,” he said.  “It’s about what’s good for the city.”