We’re building Norfolk’s community of the future.
The St. Paul’s Area Transformation Project is a strategic partnership between the City of Norfolk and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. The project seeks to redevelop a flood-prone, public housing community adjacent to downtown Norfolk into a mixed-use, mixed-income, opportunity-filled Norfolk community of the future. The first step in this large-scale project is the redevelopment of the Tidewater Gardens community that has been named Kindred.
HUD program paves the way
for critical revitalization efforts.
With Tidewater Gardens as the first focus of the St. Paul’s Transformation, the City of Norfolk and Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority partnered with Brinshore Development and the U.S. Department of Housing and Community Development (HUD) to secure a $30-million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) grant.
The CNI program leverages significant public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies to address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public or HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. Local leaders, residents, and stakeholders, such as public housing authorities, cities, schools, police, business owners, nonprofits, and private developers, come together to create and implement a plan that revitalizes distressed HUD housing and addresses the challenges in the surrounding neighborhood. CNI helps communities transform neighborhoods by revitalizing severely distressed public and/or assisted housing and catalyzing critical improvements in the neighborhood, including vacant property, housing, businesses, services and schools.
Tidewater Gardens redevelopment exemplifies collaboration and creativity.
Plans for redeveloping Tidewater Gardens were established with significant input from its residents and from interested stakeholders, and designed to create new live, work and play opportunities for the city’s residents while reconnecting the area to the economic opportunity in neighboring downtown Norfolk. Now known as Kindred, the redevelopment restores Church Street as the commercial, civic, and social heart of the historic community, and opens doors to homeownership and other opportunities.
Critical to the redevelopment is directly addressing chronic flooding problems by transforming the flood-prone areas of the old public housing community into new public park space and recreational waterways. Through storm- and tidal-resilient designs, these elements will create a dynamic living laboratory to help solve the City’s greatest challenges of sea-level rise while providing recreational opportunities and amenities.
Collaborating with Urban Strategies, Inc. (USI), a leader in providing services for communities undergoing revitalization, the City of Norfolk and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority made sure that uplifting the lives of former Tidewater Gardens residents was a priority throughout the development. Over the past several years, residents relocated for the transformation have received support in the areas of health and wellness, economic mobility, housing stability, and education. The entire transformation of Tidewater Gardens will be completed by 2026, and former residents have a priority preference for leasing in the new community of Kindred.
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Guiding Principles
Community redevelopment decisions shall be family-focused.
Satisfying the housing choices of families affected by the redevelopment of their communities shall be the highest priority.
Economic development benefits can mitigate costs but not outweigh family-focused decision making.
Revitalization strategies shall strive to have positive impacts on surrounding neighborhoods.
Decision making will reflect continuous input, transparency and feedback from all stakeholders.
Collaborative partnerships shall be pursued to assist families in building capacity to make successful choices.