Smithfield’s Town Council voted unanimously on March 4 to approve partial real estate tax exemptions for the Jersey Park and Woods Edge apartment complexes, which are scheduled to undergo renovations over the next two years.

Salisbury, Maryland-based Green Street Housing announced in 2024 it would purchase the two adjacent affordable housing communities off West Main Street, which between them have 140 rental units. Jersey Park will be the first to undergo renovations beginning this spring, followed by work at Woods Edge starting in 2026.

Jersey Park was built in 1978 with financing through a housing assistance payment grant, also known as Section 8, which provides housing choice vouchers to qualified low-income tenants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It was last renovated in 2006 and is currently assessed at $3.2 million by Isle of Wight County.

According to a memorandum from Town Manager Michael Stallings to the Town Council, that assessment translates to $5,120 in real estate taxes paid to the town annually. The $8.4 million Green Street is proposing to invest in Jersey Park would raise that amount to $18,560 per year.

Woods Edge was built in 1986 with subsidies through an affordable housing program overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build housing in rural areas, originally intended for farm laborers. It’s currently assessed at $2.3 million, which brings the town $3,680 in real estate taxes per year.

According to Stallings’ memo, Green Street plans to invest $6.3 million to renovate Woods Edge, bringing in an additional $10,080 annually.

The council has approved Green Street’s request to abate the additional $23,520 the two renovated apartment complexes would generate annually over the next 15 years.

As a result, the two housing complexes will continue to pay a collective $8,800 in real estate taxes per year through 2040, regardless of the added value of the renovations.

The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development awarded Green Street a $2.3 million Affordable and Special Needs Housing grant for Jersey Park last year. The grant will be combined with municipal bonds issued by the state as well as the federal low-income housing tax credit program. Green Street, in a letter referenced in Stallings’ memo, requested the abatement to close a funding gap in the projects’ financing.

Smithfield’s Planning Commission previously approved Green Street’s design plans in January. The two apartment complexes are located within a 500-foot “entrance corridor overlay” bordering West Main Street that requires renovations be appropriate to town character. 

The approved designs call for new siding in alternating blue and gray colors, slate-colored architectural shingles, new windows, new black doors, and a repaved parking lot with landscaping.

Inside, the apartments will receive new flooring, new heating and air-conditioning and new finishes and appliances. Tenants will be relocated to vacant units while theirs are being renovated. Green Street’s purchase agreement for Jersey Park specifies 20% of the property, or 16 units, are to be left vacant to facilitate the work without having to relocate residents off-premises.

Green Street representatives say the Jersey Park renovation is expected to take 15 months and will entail working on two emptied apartment buildings at a time.