NORFOLK — Despite being more than a decade since it was first proposed and opposition from some civic league members, a $14 million, 50-unit affordable housing development in Norfolk’s Park Place neighborhood is now open.
The development, called Newport Gardens, brings 50 affordable housing units — 37 one-bedroom and 13 two-bedroom apartments — to a city experts say has a critical affordable housing shortage.
On Wednesday, developers and city officials celebrated the opening and called it a victory for affordable housing creation in Norfolk. The apartments were constructed by Richmond developer The Hanson Company.
“I need more projects like this and developers like you,” Ward 4 City Council member John “JP” Paige told company president Kelvin Hanson during the Wednesday ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Hanson said the apartments are targeting Norfolk residents who make between 40% and 80% of the area median income. For the region, that’s an annual income between $42,600 and $85,200 for a household of four people, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Kelvin Hanson, project manager, speaks during a ribbon cutting ceremony for Newport Gardens, a new affordable housing complex composed of 50 units, in Norfolk’s Park Place Neighborhood on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
Rent for a one-bedroom unit is $1,050 a month and $1,350 for a two-bedroom unit, Hanson said. The development is located at the intersection of 36th Street and Newport Avenue.
Hanson said plans for the development formed more than a decade ago when he met with Vernon Fareed, an imam and Park Place community leader who died in 2017. Hanson said Fareed knew the revitalization of the 35th Street business corridor would require affordable housing and was impressed with Hanson’s work in Richmond.
The project’s completion also came despite objections from some members of the Park Place Civic League in 2022, when the project was finishing the city approval process. Rodney Jordan, a civic league member and former Norfolk School Board member, said in 2022 that a disproportionate number of low-income and government-subsidized housing developments had been built in Park Place, rather than other Norfolk neighborhoods.
In an interview Thursday, Jordan said his position hadn’t changed. He encouraged developers to choose wealthier neighborhoods like Ghent and cities like Virginia Beach for the site of low-income and subsidized housing development.
“Norfolk cannot be the sole option,” Jordan said.
Jordan and others have made the argument about another proposed 154-unit affordable housing development near Park Place. That development was approved by City Council members in March.
Norfolk has a significant shortage of affordable rental units, according to a 2024 housing study. The city is short roughly 6,800 rental units for households making less than $35,000 a year — about 3 out of 10 households — including 4,600 for those making less than $20,000 a year.
Hanson said he understood the criticisms and said opponents might be influenced by the stereotype of low-income housing residents as not working. However, he said many of the 10 applications received so far were from former Park Place residents who worked but had been priced out of the neighborhood.
“We have to take care of our workforce, because if they can’t afford housing, they can’t provide the goods and services that we need,” Hanson said.
Park Place Civic League President Jamie Pickens did not respond to requests for comment.
Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com
