Norfolk greenlights new construction at Tidewater Gardens as part of St. Paul’s redevelopment project

Norfolk City Council approved a slew of measures to make way for the continued redevelopment of Tidewater Gardens, a former public housing complex in downtown Norfolk being replaced by a mixed-income neighborhood.

Council approved a rezoning and seven conditional use permits for Brinshore Development, an Illinois-based group that the city selected to lead the redevelopment, to create new apartment and townhome complexes on the site, effectively green-lighting the next phase of construction, at its Dec. 13 meeting.

The project is part of the city’s redevelopment of the St. Paul’s area housing projects, which also includes the Young Terrace and Calvert Square communities. There are no plans yet to replace those neighborhoods.

Construction of new multi family units will encompass nine blocks of the former public housing complex, much of which has already been demolished. The new development will include a mix of three- and four-story elevator apartment buildings, three-story apartment walk-ups and two-story townhomes.

In all, the project will replace the 618 aging and outdated Tidewater Gardens homes, built in the 1950s, with 714 new homes. The first phase of construction is underway, with the first two apartment buildings expected to be finished by fall 2023.

Former residents will have the opportunity to return to the new community as housing units become available.

Among the new units, 260 are government-subsidized and reserved for former Tidewater Gardens residents. Another 238 are “affordable” and will serve people making between 60% and 80% of the area median income. And 216 will be market-rate.

The new development also calls for a 26-acre “resilience park” that will restore a buried waterway in an effort to ease stormwater runoff in the most flood-prone areas of the property.

The redevelopment project is a public-private partnership between Brinshore Development, Virginia Beach-based Franklin Johnston Group, the city of Norfolk and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Daniel Berti, daniel.berti@virginiamedia.com