Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Members of City Council and Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority gathered on a sunny day to celebrate the grand opening of White Marsh Pointe at Eagle Landing on Dec. 29.
Located at 1006 Marsh Pointe Drive, the newly renovated apartment community includes 206 units with 113 rehabilitated apartments and 93 that were newly constructed.
Structured as a Low Income Housing Tax Credit Community (LIHTC), the total cost for the project is a estimated $46.3 million with funding provided by tax credits, a loan from the SRHA, $275,000 contributed by the City of Suffolk, and grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also provided a FHA-insured endorsement of $23.1 million.
“There’s a lot of grace and preservation that comes with this project. It has been a long time coming, and it has been well worth the wait,” SRHA Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Tracey C. Snipes expressed at the ceremony.
“This is a feather in each of our caps, This is something that we can be proud of,” Snipes said. “This is the legacy that we’re leaving on Suffolk of providing affordable housing to the families that live in Suffolk.”
The city’s mayor praised everyone for their role in the project.
“I want to thank all the efforts of the Suffolk Redevelopment & Housing Authority, the board, and also the numerous entities that were involved in putting this project together,” Mayor Michael Duman said at the event. “This is truly going to be a blessing to those individuals that are in need of this. I think it is exceptional… What you’re doing is you’re going to provide people with a new outlook in life.”
Duman said it is all about what people come home to after work.
“Are you safe in your neighborhood? And based on what I am looking at here, with the amenities that are being provided, with the lighting that’s here, we are going to be able to afford individuals safe affordable housing at absolutely the best time we possibly can,” he said.
SRHA Board Chairman Quinton Franklin said this is especially close to his heart as everyone in the city knows that he was raised in Suffolk’s public housing.
“This is the tangible expression of what ‘passing the baton’ looks like,” Franklin said. “You can have a dream, an idea, that you may not be able to finish, but being able to give it into capable hands. From Mrs. Clarissa McAdoo to Tracey, and all of those who are on the board in the beginning, you all started this and we were blessed to be able to finish what you started. So I would encourage anyone to please, never give up on your dreams, never give up on what can be accomplished through other people. This is also evidence that collaboration is key. None of us can do anything by ourselves.”