EDA commits to owning Grange market

Isle of Wight County’s Economic Development Authority is on board with the idea of owning a farmers market building that would anchor the Grange at 10Main mixed-use development Smithfield’s Town Council approved last year for the western edge of the town’s historic district.

The EDA board voted unanimously on Oct. 8 to agree “in concept” to partnering with the town and county as the structure’s landlord “subject to the negotiation of terms acceptable” to the board.

In 2022, Grange developer Joseph Luter IV and his father, former Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph Luter III, offered land and $1 million toward the construction of what is currently proposed as a single-story building that would house 2,550 square feet of rental retail space, an attached 7,350-square-foot restaurant that would operate under condominium-style private ownership and the market, which would include 40 covered stalls and a 1.3-acre “village green.” The Luters’ offer was conditioned on the town and county each committing up to $1.4 million toward the structure, which would provide a permanent home for the currently seasonal Smithfield Farmers Market that operates weekly on Saturdays behind the Bank of Southside Virginia on Main Street. Each governing body voted to approve its share in October of that year.

The county has “a legal lease with BSV just through this year,” Tourism Director Judy Winslow told the EDA.

The Oct. 8 EDA discussion and vote marked the first time in two years that the board has discussed and officially committed to its proposed role in managing the structure. A 2023 fiscal impact study by Ted Figura Consulting stated it was “assumed” at that time that the market building would be “sold by the developer” to the EDA.

“I think we were pretty much on board before,” said EDA Board Chairman Carroll Keen.

“I like the concept of the EDA having ownership of it,” said EDA board member Jim Collins, who also serves on Smithfield’s Town Council.

Though she voted in favor of EDA ownership, board member Amber Wells described the concept as “very vague” as proposed, questioning whether the EDA had the option of saying no given the two years of preliminary planning around EDA ownership that preceded the Oct. 8 meeting.

Collins said that should the written terms of the proposed EDA-town-county agreement not be acceptable to the EDA “we can say no if we wanted to for some reason.”

Isle of Wight Economic Development Director Kristi Sutphin said the committed $2.8 million would be deposited into its own “enterprise fund,” much like the separate accounts Isle of Wight County maintains for its public utilities and for the EDA.

Collins said Smithfield’s $1.4 million is “committed but not obligated.”

“The check has not been written,” said County Attorney Bobby Jones.

According to Jones, what’s proposed is a three-party agreement among the EDA, town and county, where the EDA would serve as the fiscal agent and landlord. The agreement would be similar in concept to the “Salty Southern Route,” a five-locality driving tour highlighting salt-cured hams and peanuts, for which Isle of Wight serves as the fiscal agent.

The EDA would manage retail leases and convey the sale of any condominium-style elements, such as the restaurant, to buyers, Sutphin said. The restaurant and retail lessees would pay “common area maintenance” fees.

Management of the farmers market would remain under Smithfield’s and Isle of Wight’s shared tourism department, Jones said.

The EDA already owns a number of properties in the county, including the 43-acre parcel adjacent to Safco Products where the 352,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution “460 Commerce Center” is on track to be completed by the third quarter of 2025.

“EDAs are designed to facilitate this very type of project,” Jones said of the proposed market building, asserting public procurement regulations are more relaxed for EDA-funded projects than those owned and operated directly by a town council, board of supervisors or other governing body.

A 2022 version of the Figura study estimated the market building would cost $7.8 million when the concept called for 24 of the stalls being fully enclosed, $1.5 million of which would come from whoever buys the restaurant. Neither Luter IV nor the county or town has specified an updated cost estimate for the scaled-down, outdoor pavilion-style market the Town Council approved as part of the Grange’s rezoning in 2023.

Winslow, at the EDA meeting, said Luter IV “may be coming back with a new proposal very shortly.” Smithfield Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary said as of Oct. 9, the Grange had not submitted any new applications or proposed changes.