Woods Edge Apartments joins renovation project with Jersey Park – Smithfield Times

Jersey Park Apartments isn’t the only affordable housing complex in Smithfield slated for renovation.

Salisbury, Maryland-based Green Street Housing expects to complete the purchase of the 80-unit complex in March and will acquire the adjacent 60-unit Woods Edge apartment complex the same month, which it expects to renovate in 2026.

Both are currently owned by subsidiaries of TM Associates, based in Rockville, Maryland.

Chase Powell, development director for Green Street, told the Smithfield City Council at its Aug. 26 committee meetings that his company will assume ownership and management of both complexes in March and begin work on Jersey Park the same month. He expects the renovation to take 12 to 15 months.

The work includes replacing the roofs of the ten two-story apartment buildings, replacing the exterior walls and windows, repaving the parking lot, creating an outdoor recreation area, and repainting, new flooring, new heating and air conditioning systems, and new appliances and equipment in each apartment. Tenants will be relocated to vacant apartments during the renovation.

Once work at Jersey Park is completed, Green Street will begin the same renovations at Woods Edge.

“We really want to reposition and revitalize both communities,” Powell said.

Although the two apartment complexes share access to West Main Street from Wrenn Road, they are technically separate housing developments. Jersey Park was built in 1978, according to Powell, with financing from a housing assistance contract, also known as Section 8, which provides housing vouchers to eligible low-income renters through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Advertisements in the Smithfield Times archives show that the complex began recruiting its first tenants for one- and two-bedroom apartments in 1981.

Woods Edge, he said, was built in 1986 with subsidies from an affordable housing program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide housing in rural areas originally intended for farmworkers. Woods Edge includes two- and three-bedroom apartments.

The reason Green Street is starting with Jersey Park is because that first phase is fully funded, Powell said.

The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development awarded Green Street a $2.3 million grant for affordable and accessible housing for Jersey Park last month. The grant will be combined with state municipal bonds and the federal low-income housing tax credit program.

“The majority of affordable housing in this country is funded by what’s called the low-income tax credit, which is a dollar-for-dollar exchange of a federal tax credit for an equity investment,” Powell said. “The way that works is we work with a syndicator who either sets up a fund or finds an individual investor to invest in the property. Then they get their return through the tax credits over a 10-year period.”

A syndicator is typically a bank, an insurance company, a pension fund or another financial institution, he said.

Green Street expects to spend $8.4 million on Jersey Park alone, or $105,000 per unit, according to Powell. Funding for the renovations at Woods Edge has not yet been fully secured.

“It will look like a new community; it will not look like it does now,” Powell said.

A single management company, Gateway Management Services LLC, will oversee day-to-day operations at Jersey Park and Woods Edge starting in March. Green Street has also hired Communities Together Inc., a tenant services provider that Powell said will arrange social services, organize homeownership counseling and financial literacy classes, and work with community organizations to ensure access to food and programs for children.

“We will also strengthen security,” Powell said.

Last year, there were several shootings in Jersey Park, including two fatalities.

Green Street, he said, is currently looking into access control for all common areas, an improved camera system and better lighting in the parking lot.