Henrico’s Pemberton Row offers a model for affordable housing innovation
- Center Creek Homes
- Sep 15
- 3 min read
Richmond Times Dispatch | By Sean Jones
Published September 9, 2025
The Pemberton Row community coming to Tuckahoe is the latest project backed by Henrico’s affordable housing trust fund — and it’s drawing federal attention.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., praised the county’s approach as “creative and innovative,” noting that Henrico showed “political courage” by dedicating revenue from controversial data centers to affordable housing.
“We all know that data centers are a controversial issue,” Warner said. “But to take a controversial issue like data centers and dedicate those funds in a very creative way, to an issue that I hear about in any community in Virginia — urban, rural, suburban — that in itself is remarkable.”
Henrico launched its housing trust fund last year with a $60 million seed investment. The fund can be used in a variety of ways, from buying land to factor it out of a home’s price to awarding a set dollar amount per unit to developers, thereby lowering costs for buyers.
The county has also written off certain permit and sewer connection fees for developers building affordable projects.
“I don’t know of there being many jurisdictions that have been willing to waive some of the permitting fees and sewer fees,” Warner said. “That’s 15 to 20 grand. If that can come off the price of the house, that’s significant.”
Pemberton Row is the fifth project funded through Henrico’s trust fund. The 20 homes under construction are expected to sell for about $350,000 in an area where the average home price is closer to $500,000. The project targets buyers making up to 120% of the area median income — about $136,200 for a family of four.
Costs and income used to calculate qualified buyers can vary based on the specific neighborhood.
Tuckahoe is one of the county’s most expensive areas to build because of land values and market prices, while other projects have been able to reach lower price points.
At Parkside Townes in Varina, 25 of the 123 planned townhouses are designated affordable, selling for about $205,000 compared to $315,000 at market rate.
The Richmond area has been one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets, where housing costs have risen sharply since the pandemic.
The median price of a single-family home in the Richmond region shot up 89% from about $220,000 in 2015 to almost $415,000 in the first quarter of this year.
A 2022 analysis of housing in the area found that many working-class neighborhoods had become unaffordable to those buyers, and affordable homes were only available in poorer, often minority communities.
Dan Magder, managing director of Center Creek Capital Group, which is building Pemberton Row, said the trust fund helps make affordability possible in high-demand neighborhoods.
“If we want to avoid continuing the segregation of our communities by income, we’re going to have to bite the bullet and look at high-opportunity neighborhoods and what it takes to intersperse affordable housing across the community,” Magder said.
Tuckahoe, he added, is exactly that kind of place.
“To meet affordability goals, especially in a high-opportunity neighborhood like this here in Tuckahoe, we have to work together,” Magder said. “Land costs are higher, which means subsidies have to be higher on a per-unit basis. I think that’s something the policy community has to get used to.”
Tuckahoe Supervisor Jody Rogish said he welcomes more affordable homes in his district.
“This is a wonderful place to live, and we need options for people that are more affordable,” Rogish said. “This particular location is extremely ideal for families.”
Warner said Henrico’s trust fund could serve as a model for other local governments and even as a testing ground for new federal affordability policies.
He floated ideas like expanded capital gains breaks for older homeowners who sell large homes, freeing up supply for younger buyers, and reimagining vacant strip malls or houses of worship as potential housing sites.
“Supply is what we’ve got to have,” Warner said. “That’s something I’d love to see if we can take forward with federal legislation. I’d love to try that here. You need a community that’s willing to try new things.”
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