A concept for the farmers market that would anchor the Grange at 10Main has changed multiple times over the nearly five years since the 57-acre development at the western edge of the town’s historic district was first proposed.

Isle of Wight County’s Economic Development Authority, which agreed last year to serve as landlord for the market, took its first look at one of the latest conceptual illustrations on April 8. The new plan proposes separating the market from a restaurant that in previous plans would have been housed together with the market in a single brick structure.

Economic Development Director Kristi Sutphin told the EDA board she’d received the revised plan only hours ahead of the 4 p.m. meeting. A day later, Smithfield and Isle of Wight County Tourism Director Judy Winslow, whose department manages the currently seasonal weekly market, told the Times the illustration was no longer accurate and that another was being produced.

“I expect there to be a number of designs prior to getting a final plan for submittal,” Winslow said.

The reason for splitting the market from the restaurant, Winslow said, is to allow the market to have its own bathroom facilities.

Grange developer Joseph Luter IV presented plans in January to Smithfield’s Town Council calling for 93 homes, 45 of which would be townhouses, in lieu of three-story apartment buildings that had been part of the 267-home concept a prior Town Council voted 3-2 to approve in 2023 for mixed-use zoning. A February revision had shown the farmers market being housed in an L-shaped building with the restaurant at the end of one wing.

The February plans said the market building would consist of 24 100-square-foot covered vendor stalls in “climate controlled open space with heaters and fans.” Luter said up to 20 additional exterior covered stalls could be built on land outside the market.

Winslow told the Times the latest plans show the same number of vendor spaces but “could be phased.”

Smithfield Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary said she hadn’t received any revised plans for the Grange since the January and February revisions were presented to the Town Council on March 24.

Luter said in January that the plan as of that month was 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.

There still isn’t a definitive tenant for the restaurant, Winslow said. Former Town Councilman Randy Pack, who owns the Smithfield Station restaurant, hotel and marina, the Surry Seafood Co. and several other restaurants in Suffolk, recused himself from voting on the Grange in 2023 after disclosing that he was in negotiations with Luter as of that year to potentially run the Grange restaurant.

Luter’s revised 93-home plan has yet to be presented to Smithfield’s Planning Commission. Town Attorney Bill Riddick said in January that because Luter’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 holding a public hearing before voting on the matter.

Luter said in February that the latest concept for the Grange is still contingent on the town’s putting up $1.4 million for construction of the farmers market building. 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 for the market. Each governing body voted in 2022 to commit the money, though only Isle of Wight to date has made good on its pledge by voting to officially transfer the funds to the EDA.