"What were you even thinking?" Dairy Market developers retreat after community meeting

Last week, the owners of the Dairy Market again found themselves taking criticism for a lack of sensitivity and awareness, and having to do some damage control...

The layout of the Dairy Market developer’s expansion plans between Preston Avenue and West Street adjacent to the 10th & Page neighborhood.

In January, the Dairy Market developers took some criticism for marketing the Old Trinity Church on 10th Street as a wedding venue using photos of a White couple and their families getting married there. Five years ago, before renovating the historically Black church, Dairy Market developer Chris Henry addressed concerns about its use by saying it could be a community youth center or an affordable daycare center for people in the neighborhood, but for some that now looked like a broken promise. In a Daily Progress article about the campaign, a representative for the Dairy Market insisted they were “fully aware of the church’s history and significance” and that the marketing team “knows how important the church was and is to Charlottesville’s Black community and Black history.” As the DP pointed out, the Dairy Market website described the church as …