Dairy Market is currently Charlottesville’s largest food hall, consisting of more than fifteen local restaurants and boutiques where customers can eat, drink, and shop. It’s located along Grady Avenue, sizing at 23,000 feet.
The original building dates back to 1912, when it was known as the Monticello Ice Cream Company. By 1936, it had evolved into the Monticello Dairy building, where residents of 10th and Page would go for community gatherings and to enjoy ice cream. By the mid 1980’s, the facility stopped operating, and began to house many different businesses- including such businesses as an indoor paintball park, restaurants, breweries, a recording studio, a martial arts studio In 2017, Stony Point Development bought the property and began to renovate it. The food hall finally opened in February of 2021 and is now a bustling food stop for Charlottesville locals.
Now, the Dairy Market is looking to triple in size, making it a total of over four acres. If approved, the renovation would begin in 2026. The new space would include multi-story apartment complexes and even more restaurants. Businesses subject to impact by the expansion include Preston Suds, a local laundromat, and Twice is Nice thrift shop. As a result, members of the community expressed concern, saying that the housing is unaffordable, and that the increase in property value forces out existing residents of 10th and Page. The rental prices of the new apartments will be similar to the current 10th & Dairy Apartments, averaging between $2,000 and $3,000 a month.
Jeff Werner, the Historic Preservation and Design Planner for the city, shared with KTR, “It’s important to actually listen to the neighborhood and say, ‘What are these things you’re looking for that were either in your neighborhood or you wish were in your neighborhood?’ and then the developer making that space available so that those things can happen. You can’t make it happen, but you have to create the opportunity for them.” Jeff Werner was involved in past phases of Dairy Market, and has been working in this position for about six years.
In Charlottesville Tomorrow, it was reported that on August 3rd of this year, a meeting was hosted by the 10th & Page Neighborhood Association. At this meeting, neighbors and residents of 10th & Page expressed their concerns regarding their exclusion from Stony Point’s apartment construction, resulting in the pricing-out of primarily Black and low-income residents.
Zee Bryant, a 12th grader at CHS, is a local activist and the granddaughter of the current 10th & Page Neighborhood president, Vizena Howard. “We’ve been trying to work with them a lot, like since Phase 1. We really didn’t have a say, a lot of them would come in and tell us this dream about how there are going to be inclusive, affordable units, and how they were going to be engaged in the community and we would be kept in the loop and everything,” she said. “It’s not built for family-style living, it’s built for UVA students and grad students, that’s who lives there. They failed us once, so there’s no working with them again to try to create what was supposed to happen in Phase 1,” Bryant said.
The destruction to the local businesses along Grady Avenue was also a common concern at the 10th & Page Neighborhood Association meeting, one of which being Preston Suds laundromat. “The laundromat is a huge staple of the community, I would say. If you live on like Hardy Drive, and you don’t have either a washer or dryer, that’s their main way of washing and drying their clothes,” said Bryant.
On August 7th, a City Council meeting was held and the topic of the expansion was brought up again. This meeting was covered by The Daily Progress, which reported that the subject of increased taxes due to the Dairy Market was discussed, as well as the pushing out of long-term residents. Locals expressed that the food at Dairy Market is extremely expensive, and the apartments only cater to wealthy residents and college students seeking housing off-campus.
“I think UVA is a key player in this, I wish we could pressure them more, but I think the other solution is that we need to have builders and developers willing to build these units and make sure that they’re affordable. But it’s gonna come down to that we have to be a community in this. We can’t just hope one sector of the market is going to solve it,” said Werner.
As reported in The Cavalier Daily, Richard Hunt, another resident of the 10th and Page neighborhood at the council meeting, stated“I love my neighborhood, and when I got the flier that was sent to some of us regarding the Dairy Market I said, ‘Oh no, not again.’ We’ve been through this, my uncle’s lost a business in Vinegar Hill,” Hunt said.
This issue is seen by some residents of the 10th & Page neighborhood as a comparison, or possible repeat of the gentrification at Vinegar Hill, which was a historically black neighborhood in Charlottesville until 1964 when it was destroyed as a part of Charlottesville’s Urban Renewal efforts.
When asked how students can help, Zee Bryant replied with: “Get involved, and come to the meetings, where we talk about current events.” Planning meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month, normally in the event space underneath Dairy Market. Also joining and supporting the “Respect the Neighbors” campaign, which was created to help give a voice to residents of 10th & Page, as well as Venable and Grady Avenue.
