Tristan Williams
Stony Point Development Group has restarted efforts on Phase III of Dairy Central. Work on this portion of the project was paused indefinitely in 2023, when 10th and Page community leaders pushed back on plans to build more luxury apartments in the historically Black neighborhood.
A September 23 meeting of developers and neighbors brought the two groups together for the first public engagement on the project in three years.
The neighborhood association’s priorities have remained largely unchanged: an inclusive design process, responsive design, permanent and deeply affordable units, long-term investment in community members, and “stewardship of vacant or underutilized” sites like Old Trinity Church.
The meeting began with a presentation from Steven Blaine, counsel for SPDG, outlining changes to the project since its pause. Original plans for the site included 385 apartments, with buildings up to seven stories tall and affordable units at 80 percent of the area median income. New plans include 278 apartments with a maximum height of five stories, and 28 affordable units at 50 percent AMI.
This is not the first phase of Dairy Central to introduce luxury apartments. Current listings at the 10th and Dairy complex on apartments.com range between $2,259 and $2,471 for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit. A household would need to bring in more than $90,000 annually to afford one of these units without exceeding the recommended 30 percent of income on housing.
Developers also added plans for a 133-room hotel, which will reportedly help offset the cost of the affordable units. “It’s really hard to build these units into properties. It’s not only the cost of construction, but when you cap the rents … the project is actually losing money,” says Chris Henry, president and co-founder of SPDG. “They’ve got to subsidize them by charging higher rents elsewhere … in our case, by selling hotel rooms.”
As Blaine outlined community benefits—roughly $250,000 in small business grants, jobs, use of Old Trinity Church, the Black Artisans Market, and $87,000 in donations—local activist Zyahna Bryant spoke up, asking for the slide to be corrected. She said that while the neighborhood association had conversations with SPDG in recent months, the developers had moved forward with a site plan despite objections to key components, particularly the hotel. The meeting then shifted into an overview of the area’s history and a community forum on the development.
“More than 140 years ago, after the Civil War, Black families in Charlottesville began building lives of their own. One of the most important figures was John West, a formerly enslaved man who became a farmer, businessman, and landowner. He purchased land right here and divided it into lots, so Black families could own homes at a time when the world was trying to deny them the opportunity,” said James Bryant, who has lived in the 10th and Page neighborhood for 72 years and serves as vice president of the neighborhood association. “We’re being priced out. This project doesn’t serve the people who live here.”
Many attendees echoed the concerns voiced by James Bryant, namely the continued encroachment into the city’s historically lower-income, Black neighborhoods by developers.
The fate of Preston Suds, a laundromat many community members rely on, has also been a point of contention. When the business was brought up, Blaine said he was interrupted before he could announce a potential new site for the laundromat that SPDG coordinated with neighborhood leaders. When Zyahna Bryant and members of the neighborhood association asked who those leaders were, Wes Bellamy raised his hand.
“I’ve owned three laundromats in the past, so I have some experience there,” says Bellamy. He reportedly toured the proposed site, a warehouse owned by SPDG near the intersection of 10th and West streets, shortly before the meeting. “The space is conducive for community, in my personal opinion. … People need that kind of space, so I think that it has a great deal of potential to be a huge benefit for the community. We keep the laundromat in the community. We have it for us and by us.”
Tensions were high at the September 23 meeting with Stony Point Development Group and 10th and Page community members. Numerous city leaders, including Mayor Juandiego Wade and Councilor Michael Payne, were also in attendance. Tristan Williams
Both SPDG and Bellamy floated the idea that the roughly 5,000-square-foot space could be used as a community gathering spot in addition to a laundromat.
Edit 12:18pm 9/30/26: Despite several conversations between the 10th and Page neighborhood association and SPDG, including discussion of the laundromat, the association was not included in conversations about or previously made aware of the potential warehouse site, or Bellamy’s involvement.
The 10th and Page neighborhood association, which has been in talks with SPDG and Henry for years, learned of the proposal for the first time at the meeting. Shortly after Bellamy stood up, Zyahna Bryant told neighbors to “be very careful and be very weary of the vultures who will come into our neighborhood and try to profit off of this. … Everyone who is skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.”
As the meeting entered its final minutes, Zyahna Bryant shifted attention to City Council and rallied support for a zoning text amendment. Councilor Michael Payne spoke in favor of the amendment, saying “I think there are many things in [the zoning code] that were good, but there’s no avoiding the fact that there were things that we got wrong, and there are things that we need to fix. … We did not provide enough protections for Black neighborhoods.”
Mayor Juandiego Wade was also asked to commit to the zoning amendment text. Earlier in the meeting, Bryant pointed out that Henry was the single largest individual donor to the mayor’s most recent campaign for Council. Wade eventually said he would “definitely support a move to change the zoning text amendment to see how we can get more support and strength from the neighborhoods.”
Edit 12:16pm 9/30/26: Throughout the meeting, Blaine was blasé with his responses to concerned community members. In response to an audience comment that he likely had never relied on a laundromat himself, Blaine said that he used Preston Suds as a student in the ‘70s. At the conclusion of meeting, Blaine also referred to Zyahna Bryant as “madam chairwoman.”
In a written comment to C-VILLE, Blaine reiterated the argument that Dairy Central benefits the 10th and Page neighborhood and SPDG continues to work with neighborhood leaders.
“We would point out that we are offering a community benefits agreement. Whether there is a special use permit or similar process in place or not, there are limits to what projects can contribute in terms of cash contributions and still be viable,” he says. “Our approach is unique in that the client has volunteered a community benefits agreement without a legislative mandate.”
Henry says he hopes to announce “very positive details and news” in the next three months, is “still in a listening mode,” and is continuing conversations with neighborhood leaders about “proposals that I think solve a few of the major concerns that we heard.”
In the interim, neighborhood leaders plan to continue calling for a zoning text amendment.
