Updated on Oct. 22 at 12:15 p.m. to include additional financial information from the governor’s office.
A workforce housing development with more than 325 single-family houses that will involve an investment of $120 million will be built in Washington County, just outside of Bristol, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday.
The Sunny Valley subdivision, being built on 84 acres of former farmland off King Mill Pike, will help fill a serious need for housing in the area, particularly needed for the growing workforce, the governor and other officials said during a groundbreaking that drew a crowd to the site.
“As I talk with local residents and local businesses, the biggest issue that we hear over and over again on repeat is housing,” said Del. Israel O’Quinn, R-Washington County. “The supply just isn’t there. … It isn’t there for first-time home buyers. It isn’t there for growing families. It isn’t there for businesses looking to grow and expand and bring new employees.”
Developer Jerome Malinay, with Ardent Development Group, said most of the houses will be three bedrooms and they will sell for between $250,000 and $350,000.
The project will be built in four phases, and one phase will be larger homes that will sell in the range of $400,000 to $450,000 and be constructed at the back of the development, he said.
Immediately, improvements, including widening and turn lanes, will be made to that section of King Mill Pike, and the grading of the property and subdivision work will start within a month, according to Malinay.
The project is expected to be turned over to the builder, D.R. Horton, in March so construction of the houses can begin. The first houses are expected to go up for sale in June or July of 2026, and the full project is expected to take four to five years to complete, he added.
State Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington County, said Sunny Valley will be a “model for sustainable growth.”
“These homes are designed for working families, for teachers, for technicians, and for health care workers, the people who keep our community strong,” he said. “We’ve seen amazing progress … in job creation and business investment across Southwest Virginia. But we all know that growth can’t last without proper housing to support it. The King Mill project helps change that. It builds new homes right here where they’re needed most.”
Youngkin explained that the project is part of Virginia’s Workforce Investment Program, which started just 11 months ago and was designed to create affordable housing for middle-income residents. The program is providing up to $75 million in funding over five years, $15 million per year.
The purpose of the program is to align housing development with economic growth, according to the Virginia Works website.
Sunny Valley, which the governor said is the “poster child” for the program, received a $3 million grant.
The money is meant to be “that kind of gap capital, that last bit that pushes it over the edge,” Youngkin said.
The $3 million grant to the project unlocked $120 million in private capital and led to more than $35 million in other work, including getting the needed utilities for the project in place and for the road work that will be done by the Virginia Department of Transportation, he said.
“That’s $160 million that got unlocked with a $3 million investment,” the governor said.
The costs for the project were $25 million for the needed sewer upgrades; $2 million for the road upgrades; $18 million for the land purchase, grading and other infrastructure improvements; and $114 million for construction of the houses, according to the governor’s office. The total project cost is expected to be $159.84 million.
Mallinay said the project has been in the works for about two years and represents a huge public-private partnership between a host of local and state agencies and companies, including Ardent, D.R. Horton, Washington County, the Mount Rogers Planning District Commission, Virginia Housing and New Peoples Bank.