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 & 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.
Choice Neighborhood Initiative
With Tidewater Gardens the first focus of the St. Paul’s Transformation, the City of Norfolk and Norfolk Redevelopment & Housing Authority partnered with Brinshore Development and the U.S. Department of Housing and Community Development to secure a $30 million Choice Neighborhood Initiative grant to kickstart the redevelopment of the Tidewater Gardens redevelopment.
The Choice Neighborhoods program leverages significant public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies that 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. The program 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
Redevelopment plans, established with significant input from current residents and interested stakeholders, are 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. The Tidewater Gardens redevelopment restores Church Street as the commercial, civic and social heart of the community, and opens the door to new homeownership and other opportunities.
Redevelopment plans also directly address the area’s chronic flooding problems, transforming the area’s flood-prone areas into new public park space and recreational waterways that will serve as a dynamic living laboratory to help solve the City’s greatest sea-level-rise challenges.
Tidewater Gardens will be redeveloped in five separate phases. The first phase, now underway, is focused on the demolition and redevelopment of Tidewater Gardens and the temporary relocation of its residents. The entire Tidewater Gardens transformation will be completed by 2025.
See What’s In Store
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.