The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - 5th Street Station Sells For $117M On 7/17/26; Bridge33 Capital Buys 5th St: 451,779 SQF, 47.7 Acres

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: 5th Street Station Sells For $117,124,900 On 7/17/26 Bridge33 Capital Buys 5th St: 451,779 SQF, 47.7 Acres Bridge33 Introduction + 5th St Assessed At $109,047,700 If School Board Hires Law Firm, It Has Something To Hide Is CVille City Council Failing Taxpayers & Local Economy? CVille Area Economic Notebook: Great, Good, Bad & Ugly CVille Area Strongest & Weakest Sectors. What To Watch? Need To Rent Commercial Space? Contact Jerry Miller Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Conan Owen, Owner of Sir Speedy of Central VA, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the I Love Sevo Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on a glorious Thursday afternoon. I mean, it is picture perfect outside. I woke up this morning and walked the family German Shepherd, Max Miller, around our home in Ivy. And it was like 65 degrees cool and crisp. I mean, I couldn't ask for a better start to my Thursday morning. There's a lot to cover on the show today. We do have a household name Conan Owen in the house.

the owner of Sir Speedy of Central Virginia, a Darden school graduate, and a man that has his pulse on the economic climate, if you may, of Charlottesville, Al Morrow, and Central Virginia, he will join us in about five minutes on the I Love Seville Show. I want to draw some attention to what is breaking news here on the I Love Seville Show. Information passed to me by a very, very, very connected individual in real estate in Charlottesville, Almore. County in central Virginia and across the east coast. We're talking about a heavy hitter, not necessarily focused on central Virginia real estate. We'll get straight to the story, ladies and gentlemen, Fifth Street Station has now been sold. The new buyer, the buyer of Fifth Street Station is Bridge Three Capital and get up, get ready on this sales price. $117,124,000. Excuse me, $117,124,900. We're talking a nine-figure deal for Fifth Street Station.

The sale just closed. July 17th, not even six days ago, this transaction closed. Bridge Three Capital purchased Fifth Street Station, 47.7 acres, 451,777759 square feet of commercial real estate. Fifth Street Station was assessed by Al Morrow County at $109,77,700 in its most recent assessment. So you're talking about about $8 million above assessment here. I'm going to introduce you to Big Bridge 33 Capital on the show today. And I'm going to tell you a little bit of history about Fifth Street Station, River Bend Development, and Corrin Capshaw.

This is as significant a sale as you see happen in Admiral County, Charlottesville, and Central Virginia. I literally am looking at my live feed right now and seeing every single media outlet watching me on the talk show right now. If you're just tuning into the program, Fifth Street Station has been sold. It sold not even six days ago. in a nine-figure deal, $117,124,900 to Bridge 33 Capital, Daily Progress, Seville Weekly, NBC29, CBS19, and Seville right now. You need to report about this immediately. This was passed along to me by someone who watches and listens to this program that does significant deal brokerage out of the Northern Virginia, D.C. Metro area. Bridge 33 Capital, ladies and gentlemen, this is their first Virginia acquisition.

Bridge 33 Capital describes itself as a vertically integrated real estate company focused on open-air retail centers. This is their first purchase in the Commonwealth. It was founded in 2013 Bridge 33 Capital. The firm has acquired approximately 17 million square feet of commercial real estate across 26 states. The Fifth Street Station acquisition adds to that footprint. Fifth Street Station, ladies and gentlemen, developed by River Bend Development, in collaboration with Corrin Capshaw. This is a monumental project that's anchored, of course, by Wegmans. Whatever the new Dix brand is, their Dix Super Sporting Good Store.

I believe you have a mattress warehouse in there, a Panera Bread, and a Timberwood Tap House. I'm very curious to see what's going to happen here with rents as Bridge 3 Capital has just paid more than $117 million for Fifth Street Station. I would imagine folks, they are going to go up as this investment firm is looking for return on investment. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. Deep Throat in Montana, very curious of your thoughts. John Blair, very curious of your thoughts. your thoughts. The folks at Tallheiber

that watched this program, very curious of your thoughts. The folks at Colliers that watched this program. The folks at McKenzie that routinely watch this program. Very curious of your thoughts. Ladies and gentlemen, on that note, will give some attention to Charlottesville

Sanitary Supply, Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company, and a business that were soon to launch in conjunction with the owners of those two companies, John and Andrew Vermillion, they're about to introduce a new stellar division to their family portfolio. That announcement will be happening

in the very near future in conjunction with our firm. Nearly 63 years, ladies and gentlemen of business for Charlottesville Sanitary Supply and Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company. Your source for anything swimming pool related, anything, ladies and gentlemen, vacuum related,

anything sanitary and cleaning related. Studio camera, Darden School graduate, overall badass, a guy who's moving and shaking all over Central Virginia. Virginia, $117 plus million, Conan. That's a lot of money. That's a have a lot of money.

I mean, it is a 7% premium over assessment, which isn't huge. Quick math from you already. There's the Darden degree. Okay. It's not huge. In the wheelhouse of assessment. Yeah. I mean, you often see acquisitions tend to have a pretty high premium if you think

something really big is shaking. But it's interesting. They do have a lot of properties in Nevada, a lot of properties in Illinois. be interesting to see how this fits in. Also, they've got a fair number of vacancies over there, especially in the food area. At Fifth Street Station. Yeah, Fifth Street Station.

And the other thing, interesting, you mentioned that they were vertically integrated. So currently Fifth Street Station has a third-party property and leasing management company. Is that TVaris? T-S-G, I think. Okay. Was DeVars? Now, THG? T-SG, the Shopping Center Group.

That's right. That's right. So it would be interesting to see how they manage that because just like Ryo Hills has a, they had their Edison has their own property management team. They'll be interesting to see how that changes things.

I'm going to answer a straightforward question here. Corrin-Campshaw, Riverbed and Development. What's he going to do with all this money? A 5th Street Station. Corin-Capshaw is Scrooge McDuck right now swimming in gold coins, not like he needed it. But I'll tell you what, I'm of the mindset. I salute anyone who hits a

home run in business and has a success. Completely. Good for the economy. Yeah. It can only be good for the economy. Okay. Okay. What is this say, here's a straightforward question to you. You have your pulse on this community economically just as much as I do. You are literally one of the first people people call when they're

launching a business or closing a business are looking to grow their business. You and I probably one and two on that speed dial right there. I'm going to throw this to you. What does that say that corn capsule and Riverbent are exiting a position like this? Does that foreshadow anything at all?

Or is it just about a payday here? He's over 60. Okay. Okay. If I were in his position, that's what I'd be doing. Okay. So you're saying this is an exit tied to, hey. You know, it's just like, I mean, he's been, he's been here in business for over 40 years. It's just like, it's. Okay. Here's a follow-up question. But what I will say is somebody, a national player coming into the market, paying a premium, to me, that just continues to reinforce the bullish outlook for this market. Okay. I like that angle. That's certainly a point of view. I like that one.

I'll have a follow-up to Corrin and the exit. He exits the Wawa Ground Lease, which we broke on this story. He made a fortune on that. Made a fortune. Sold it to Mark Brown, the parking czar of Charlottesville, who did a 1031 exchange into the Wawa Ground Lease. Corrin has now exited two positions basically touching each other on Fifth Street extended. Do we read into that at all?

I don't think so. I think it's just the right. I mean, he bought this stuff. because it was valuable property, and now he's selling it because it's even more valuable. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. I mean, honestly, in my mind, it's a wonder that Alan Kajin hasn't done the same thing. I had a conversation with Alan Kajin a few days ago. We're trying to fill some of the bi-coastal real estate attorney in real estate, you know, bigwigs, open real estate here in Charlottesville,

now Marl County. I mean, I'll just be straightforward with you. How do you characterize right now Charlottesville's economic climate from what you've seen? Despite some serious stumbles, I think they completely, they couldn't hit the broadside of a 250-year-old barn or a 50-year-old downtown mall. I think they could have done so much more with that. The region overall, I think, is just booming. With confidence. Continue to see it, yeah.

Okay, all right. I earlier in the week talked about the hotel numbers Did you watch that show? Occupancy and hotel rents, the nightly rates. The 80 R's, yeah. And this was published by Roy Van Dorn

and a newsletter that was passed along to me by a local hotel year that asked for anonymity. Those numbers over the 50 year anniversary of the mall and the 250 anniversary of the country were down locally. You wouldn't know what happened here. in Charlottesville. The city missed

so many opportunities to make something out of the 50th and the 250th. They just seemed so intent on just, you know, between doing the downtown, closing the downtown crossings when they did. You know, I worked very closely with Greer and the Friends of Downtown

to make this. Rearackenback. Yeah, it's just, you know, half the things we proposed, they just couldn't get around to approving. It just seemed like they didn't care. even the ceremony itself because, you know, she was pushing to have it on, you know, Fridays after five. You've got this big audience under the tent. It's the end of the day. And they were just like, no, no, no, we want to here where they laid the last brick and right in front of the fountain at four o'clock on Friday so all the employees can come.

And except the employees were off on July 3rd because the 4th is a holiday. So there was no built-in audience that they were hoping for. To me, that's just emblematic of, you know, the folks that can't shoot straight. What the hell's going on with council in City Hall? What hell is going on? They just don't know what they're doing. You spared, one of the reasons I like interviewing you on the show here is you are about a straight shooter is anyone going to get. You're really straight, shoot it straight on Reddit. I love that about you.

But it's just like there's so much that they can do and they just, you know, they don't have any, they don't show any leadership. They don't show. Put it in perspective. Put it in perspective. Do something. Do something about the downtown mall, do something about economic development, do something about the unhoused situation. And it doesn't mean you have to have a solution and certainly not a perfect solution. Because I've been saying this for months.

Number one, triage the unhoused population. According to popular legend and societal studies, we're all just one paycheck away from homelessness. Well, if that's true, you've got a huge population of people who are eminently employable. and right now in this country we have more open jobs and we have unemployed people. So if in fact these people are all recently unemployed due to some unfortunate circumstances, get them into some temporary housing, get them to support they need to get back in the workforce. There are plenty of jobs available. And yes, the jobs may not be in Charlottesville.

Well, that's unfortunate. You know, we can't all have everything we want all the time. You know, once upon a time about 100 years ago, hundreds of thousands of, of people just cross the country to California looking for work. Manifest Destiny. No, the Great Depression. Great Depression. First Manifest Destiny, then the Great Depression.

But the Great Depression, I mean, people were like, I need to work. I don't want to be homeless. I don't want to be standing in a soup line. I'm going to find my way across the country and seek opportunity. Okay, well, it would be great. There are opportunities in Charlottesville. It may not be for everyone, but that's unfortunate. You aren't guaranteed a job in the place you want.

want to be in the field you want to do and no handing out, holding out for a management position like Randy Quaid on Christmas vacation. I like Randy Quaid on Christmas vacation. It's just like, take a job. You know, we all did crap jobs at some point in our lives. And, you know, when times are tough, that's what you have to do. And sometimes you have to take two. That doesn't mean I don't have sympathy for folks. I've, you know, I've hired recently incarcerated folks. I've hired people who came out of the Department of Adult Rehabilitation Services, I get it. I'm willing to give them a try.

I'm willing to give them a chance, but they have a responsibility to show up, show up on time, do the job well, and behave. I'm going to ask you an extremely straightforward question. Sam Sanders, the city manager of Charlottesville, Virginia. Is it time to turn the heat up on his job? Sure, but what's your alternative?

I mean, that's part of the problem, is we scared away. I don't know, how many city, managers, got rid of a bunch of police chiefs, you know, who wants the jobs in Charlottesville? Fortunately, Cotches has stuck around. He's done a pretty good job. I believe watching the program now. But at the same time, you know, what is, you know, Sam Sanders may be the executive, but he's supposed to take his direction on policy from the city council. And the policy at city council seems to be shrug. You know, it's just like we have, how many building inspectors?

I think, is there one right now? That's the last I heard there was one. And people talk about, oh, regulation, oh, that's some crazy right-wing talking point. No, it's not. If you're going to require a building inspection to get a building open, you need to provide that service in a timely fashion. Otherwise, you've got these businesses paying rent for months on end that's going to prevent them from sticking around. A perfect segue into insight that you published online. What was the greasy spoon that just closed down? Well, they changed hands.

The replacement of Mels. The Males, delicious fish and chicken. Tell the story. Well, you know, he got in there, signed his lease, and then he started doing a little renovations, and, you know, he had the health inspector come by and said he had to change this, and he changed that. And then the health inspector came back, said, oh, but you have to change this too. They wouldn't give him a comprehensive list across all departments of what needed to be done. So it took them about six months to get open.

And the thing that I don't really understand is how is it that Mels could operate safely and within healthy guidelines, and someone else gets the keys and he has to change everything. If Mel didn't need a fire suppressing vent, why did this guy? Oh, well, the code changed. Okay, so you had an unsafe restaurant operating all this time? You had an unhealthy restaurant operating all this time? No. It's either one or the other.

It either is good to go. Doesn't matter whose name is on the lease or it's not. And that's the part I don't get is. and then if you're going to insist that they change everything, well, at least be efficient about it and say, here's all the stuff you need to do. So he lasted about a year before he realized it just wasn't for him. Well, there's very few businesses, and you made this point on Reddit,

there's very few businesses that can go six months without earning revenue. Hardly anyone can. Right. Hardly anyone can. I mean, I had to pay double rent for a month when I moved because my landlord wouldn't give me a month's free rent to do the renovations I needed. They're just like you leased it as is. And this is Woodard.

It is Woodard. Yeah. You have a great spot. Yeah. I have a great spot. You built it to spec. I built it to what I need. And I get their point.

But at the same time, it's like, yeah, I rented it as is. But, you know, if there are holes in the floor, I would expect you at least give me a decent floor. But, yeah, every landlord has their own terms and conditions. You know, Alan Kajin, when we leased, did our lease from him, he was really great with the buildout and the TI allowance. Not everyone operates that way. When did you lease from Kajin? My wife's Medsbond, Noroli. Okay, fantastic.

Right there behind Eloise and public. Alan Kajun watches and listens to just about every show here. No, Alan. That we do. Alan was great. You know, we had an unfinished basement in that building. We took over both floors, and he paid for the plumbing and electrical and putting down the slab. Sam Sanders, city manager, Charlottesville.

I'll set a stage for you, okay? And, you know, City Hall is watching this program right now. Initially out of the gate, I was as big as Sam Sanders. fan as there was that was out there. Okay. Sam Sanders over, call it the last 12 to 18 months. The city inspector's

office is in a shit show. That's safe to say, right? Very safe. Safe to say. Okay. The head of neighborhood development services has quit. She came from Northern Virginia, came down here, she pieced out. Chris Engel, the economic

development director. What is Chris Engel doing? I do not I cannot, right? We do not know. Sam Sanders has absolutely fumbled this homeless situation. And here's the thing, is to me, the chief executive of the town, Sam Sanders. Sam, he's supposed to be the reality check on the policy dreams of city council. So if they say, okay, we want to buy holiday drive, he should be the one saying, okay, wait, what are we going to do with? it and how much more is it going to cost and how long is it going to take you know one of the things

that i've been saying forever is put in some sprinklers whatever it takes to get up to fire code put in some showers and make it a dorm until you figure it out that way you know it's the old something's better than perfect you know perfect's the enemy a very good housing people dorm style essentially it's the salvation army you open one of the rooms and there are a couple of bunk beds in in there. Yeah, you're not going to have individual rooms. It's going to be an open thing. Well, guess what? There are hundreds of thousands of people in the Army and Navy and Marines who live that way. College students live that way. College students live worse in some respects. Yeah. You know, so you have some security there to keep the peace. You put in some showers

to make it sanitary and you put in the fire thing so you don't end up with a liability issue and you move the folks there. The problem that you have, though, is that they have to want to go. Just like they have to want to get help, they want to have to turn their lives around. And that's, you know, my personal problem with low barrier shelters is you're rewarding folks for not committing to make that step to improve their lives. I mean, and frankly speaking, and I don't want to speak for you, but I believe you're of this mindset. I'm not convinced the folks that live in tent town on the banks of the Rivana River truly will even use the low barrier shelter.

That's also possible. And again, it gets back to what I said. We need to do a census. How many people have severe drug addictions? How many people have severe mental illness? How many people are there because they had a, you know, a bout with addiction and they lost their job, but then they couldn't get their job back? Or they had a medical issue that prevents them from working full-time versus the people who are eminently employable or supposedly. How many fall into each of those buckets and what's the solution for each of them? The problem is the group I said first, which is really the last group, is the folks who are really hardcore, difficult to rehabilitate. What do you do with them?

You can't force them to go to a shelter. You can't put them in a mental institution like they did 20, 30 years ago, or 40 years ago, because in the 70s they took everyone out. You can't put them in jail, even if they're breaking. I mean, you can put them in jail if they break the law, but it's not, it doesn't change. change their lot in life other than get them off the street. When does that when, okay, I'm back to the same thing here, and I think he's a very affable guy, and he started his city manager tenure out. I thought really well.

I thought he made a tremendous mistake with the Market Street Park homeless encampment, allowing that. Put Chief Cottes in the police department in a terrible position. I think he's made a number of grave airs. She spoke to Holiday Drive. I'm speaking to the building inspection department, the economic development director, the turnover, not holding counsel accountable to these pipe dreams that are pushed upon them by activists where they're bullied by activists to pursue. But that's not Sam's job.

Sam's job is to say, okay, they fed you this pipe dream and you're all for it, but he's got to hold them accountable. The math don't math. The math don't math. And you need to stop. Do you want to buy a holiday drive? Great. Okay, before we write this check, what's your plan? What's it going to cost?

And I don't want a six-month consultant that's going to cost me another million dollars to tell me what you and I can find. figure out by saying, okay, fixing this up into individual rooms and blah, blah, blah, it doesn't take much for a commercial contractor. You could go to Martin Horn and Nola builds and say, just, just, just, just, just, park me a square footage, just convert this to this kind of use. And they would tell you and you'd say, okay, let me do the math. We don't have that kind of money.

Right. Builder grade, 350 a square, this much square feet. It's so effing audience. But nobody did that. And they went and they wrote the check, just like they wrote the check on. on Cherry Avenue. Yeah. Zero East High Street.

But, you know, but it all comes down to this. It's like, okay, look, the government just isn't efficient at managing money. It's not, first of all, it's not their money, so they have zero skin in the game. They have zero skin in the game. What happens to Natalie Osharan if people say, boy, you really screwed up this homeless thing or this, that, or she goes back to her job at Pippin Hill. Well, she's now at Harvest Moon. Her Harvest Moon. She quit Pippin Hill.

So she goes back to her day job. What happens to Sam Sanders? Well, if Rochelle Brackney can get a new job, I'm sure Sam Sanders could. You know, and it's just not the place where you're getting really good critical thinking going on and planning is the other side of it. You know, it's easy to write a check. But, you know, I was a former consultant. Hey, implementation, that's your problem. No, it is a problem.

and when it's our money, and speaking of which, our money is about to go out the window again because this retail sales tax, the local retail sales tax, the referendum. Almar passed it, city passed it. It also applies. One of the things they tell you, they try to sneak this under, they say, oh, it doesn't apply to food.

It does apply to restaurants. It does apply to restaurants. We have to clarify here. By past, we mean it's on the ballot to vote. Yes. It's not approved the sales tax increase yet. The city counts. and the Board of Supervisors agreed to put it on the ballot this November for us to vote on whether or not we should increase retail sales tax 1% one point that goes all to schools.

Now here's my problem with that. Okay, again, getting back to the accountability and how they spend our money. Okay. Talk to people about health care and they say we spend the most per person in the world and we get the worst results of the industrialized world. Well, guess what? education, we spend the most per pupil in the world, and we have the lowest results in the industrialized world. And that's already government run.

And now you want to give them, so we gave them all our property taxes, because property taxes fund the schools. And then we implemented a lottery, and 100% of the lottery goes to schools. And that's not enough. And now we have to cough up another 1%. And what I hear the number for Charlottesville

is going to be another $12 million a year for the next 20 years. it's like, okay, what's your plan for that money that actually results in students moving ahead and not having declining SOL scores and not spending money on these social, emotional, learning, letchers? You know, and you look at the school board. It's like, I would rather you had fired that clown, meaning the superintendent. Matthew Haas. Then try to save a little money and say, we've asked you for your resignation. Yeah, golden parachute.

It's like, it's like, two 60K. Yeah. So you say, okay, well, if you fire him, you have to pay him 500. Well, guess what? You haven't been very good stewards of our money to begin with. And I'd rather you show a couple of Cajona's and fire the guy and come out and say, no, sorry, you're done. What you did is just not acceptable because here somebody's going to go and say, I reside. He's going to get another job too.

And it's like you're not, you're not protecting. You know, it's like you're in charge of safety. You're in charge of education, and you're in charge of creating an environment where people can fulfill their dreams. They're not doing any of those three things, either in the city or in the county. If the tent town, when it gets torn down on September 1, and the encampments come back to the downtown mall, did you see the photo you sent me? He and I, Cote and O and texts back and forth all the time. Often economic development and storefront talk, businesses coming and going. You sent me a photo.

That's the new CRAJ. head quarks on the downtown mall. They've bannered it with some kind of Seaville branding. It was what we tried to do for the 50th and they shot us down. The storefronts because it's currently empty. We wanted every empty storefront to be branded out for the 50th to make it

look nice. And I counted the empty storefronts by the way on the downtown mall and off the downtown mall. It's like 16 or 17 because I have a tenant that's looking for downtown space and we're going back and forth on the rate. Of course the tenant

wants lower, my client once higher. So I'm saying there's 16 empty storefronts. This is a financially secure tenant. Maybe we consider dropping that rate a little bit. There's a lot of competition. To get a five-year term of a quality tenant in place. That's a different conversation.

And that photo you sent me, I believe, what we know was the CRHA future headquarters. The old, was it, was it? SILVERNAVA. Yeah, VETA. Yeah. There was a homeless man sleeping in that. Did you see that? Yeah, I sent you the picture.

You're sleeping there. Do you expect them to come to the downtown mall? There's no policy in play, and what's the impact this will have on Sam Sanders? I don't know that any. I told City Hall's watching here. Are they? What are they going to do? I mean, I'm about a straight, I hold City Hall accountable as much as anybody.

I agree, but are they going to hold that? This was their idea. Well, without the, I think you're in agreement here. In fact, I know you're an agreement here. without the policy that you can't camp and store your possessions in public places, they're just going to drive tent town back downtown. Yeah. Yeah.

Because if, you know, they're saying, well, where are they going to go? Okay, well, if you break up the encampment, where are they going to go, back to the downtown mall. That's where they were originally. You'll notice they don't go to the- That's a kick in the nuts to me, man. But you notice they don't go to the corner. Well, the UBA won't allow them. Really?

Why is that? Because they know it's an eyesore for prospective students and the big money donors. Yeah. You're 100% hard. I mean, there's a giant lawn out there that they could set up tents on. 100%. And UVA even cleaned up the collection of homeless outside of the white spot. Did you notice that?

I don't spend much time then there. You know they used to hang out by the white spot across from orbit? Yeah. Caddy quarter of orbit. They clean that up. Well, I mean, there are also some really big lawns on Park Street, but I don't see anyone camping over there. Why do we not have the policy? I think it comes back to, like you said.

the advocacy class just gets in their face. And they don't want to hear it. What did you make of the mark in Fifeville? The advocacy class on Monday night attacking city council. We're going to play sizzle reels from Monday night city council meeting on tomorrow's show, attacking counsel about this luxury student housing in Fifeville. Well, honestly, well, and this is something you and I disagree on. I am all for housing.

Build it, build more, build again. If you're going to sustain growth in this town, and if you're ever going to try and get the rents to come down, the only way you do that is by having more housing than you've got people knocking on doors and only then will numbers start to come down. You look at what Austin, Texas did, and they're a boom town.

You talk about Charlottesville is a boomtown. Austin, Texas is crazy. Their university is three-time the size of ours. They've got all these tech jobs that make, you know, as impressive as our tech growth is. You know, Austin's just off the charts. Their rents and housing prices have all come down because they built like crazy.

And a lot of it comes down to zoning. you know, we've only got 5% land available. We've got a bunch of stuff. And now Morrill County. That they don't let you, you know, that they don't let you tear down and build over. You know, it's just like, it's interesting to me that there, where they just sold that holiday in and behind Starbucks and Christian's Pizza, that's going to be a self-storage unit. Kyle Rudinger, I believe, doing that development. Yeah, how about human storage?

Yeah, the number, and also just up on Araya, I was just over there today. I sent you the picture there's a new apartment building next to the new tobies on Ryo Road. And if you drive around behind that, guess what? There's another self-storage unit. So they're building stuff. It's just, are we building the stuff that's, you know, it's like, yeah, do I want to be an apartment building that's behind another apartment building that's kind of down in a depression? Maybe not, but I would imagine an apartment building is more profitable than, especially in this market, then, you know, it doesn't have to be a AAA five-star. you know, we need three-star and four-star accommodations also.

But instead, you know, they decided to build, you know, storage for stuff instead of storage for humans. Viewers and listeners, put your comments in the feed. I'll relay them live on air. Conan Owen, our guest, Stacey Baker, Patty, watching the program. She says UVA is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I'm pretty sure that's why there is zero tolerance for encampments. You got Vanessa Parkhill, the Queen of Earlysville, her photo on screen. Pittsburgh brought in pop-up shops and empty storefronts during the NFL draft. Conan Owen is spot on here.

Kevin Yancey of Waynesboro watching the program. Start with the salaries. If people you've hired who make the least at City Hall, it isn't the city manager. What's going on here? Vanessa Parkhill also adds, almost every time they want to add a tax and say it's for schools, that's just a way to get it passed.

Do we know if the funds are actually going to the schools? I will say this, and I'll throw it to you, the referendum that's on the ballot on November is as regressive of a tax that there is. I mean, yeah, it doesn't apply to groceries, but it applies to just about everything else. Everything else. Yeah, this is a regressive mechanism. And oftentimes education is a cross-isle unifier. This cross- aisle unifier is going to further gentrify the community because it impacts the financial margin. This does not impact the wealthy.

No. No, it doesn't. Comments continue to come in here. Your take on what's going on with Alamo County Public Schools. We learned yesterday, and John Blair has a point of clarification from yesterday's comment. Yesterday's comment was this, that if the Almore County School Board hires a law firm, third-party law firm to do the investigation of the sexual assaults within the public schools, that that law firm and the school board may invoke attorney-client privilege

with the report of the investigation as a way to claim. or to hide the results. Here's this comment from today. Then I'll relay, you know, anywhere you want to go on the topic. Just to be clear, John Blair, I'm not saying the school board has something to hide or not. I don't know. However, I hope if a law firm is hired and the school board believes it will invoke attorney-client privilege or other privacy protections, then please say that before you hire the law firm.

I like to see Abilmore County Public Schools get back on track. But I can tell you this, if a law firm is hired and no such statement is made, then people will grow even more cynical if you get the same report that we got with UVA football and its strategy, which is the point I made. Be up front. If you don't expect large portions of the investigation to be released to the public, then say so now. You and I recall how angry everyone was when the football report was released. I'd implore the school board not to make the same mistake if they don't have any intention

of releasing the investigation to the public. Conan Owen, your show. All of that is true, but I'll just make this one very simple. comment. People have very short memories. What happened in Virginia five years ago when it came to parents not feeling like the schools were doing the right thing for their kids? You're talking COVID in the pandemic? No. I'm talking Glenn Yonkin. Shocked everyone. But what was his constituency? What put him over the top? Terry McCullough's flubs? Well, but a big, but a lot of those flubs were, you know, no parents don't have the right to know what their kids are doing in school. That exactly was what

put Yonkin in office. McCullough said that three times. Yep, he said it three times. And basically the Almar County School Board is saying that the way they're responding to parent complaints, just the fact that this whole problem exists, and now you've got this clown and the super assistant superintendent who's on paid administrative leave for harassing one of his coworkers. It's just like, are you got to be kidding me?

And look where all the bloat is in, you know, look where the increase. Like you were saying, Almar County School enrollment has been going down, but their budget's been going up. And it's not going to teachers, and it's not going for teachers' aides, and it certainly isn't going for bus drivers. So where is it going? You know, 30 years ago, when I was at Darden, my mentor was like, you know, I've been teaching here since the late 60s.

We still have the same number of students, but the administrative staff has doubled. And if you wonder why the tuition went up in 30 years, it's to pay for the administrative staff. You wonder why our property taxes and our property values keep going up. It's to pay for this bloat in the school. system. Comments continue to come in for Coton Owen here. Have you seen a more gut-wrenching or community appalled scandal than what's going on with ACPS and your time in Charlottesville?

How long have you been here? 25 years. I've been here 26 years, so right at the same time. I got here in 2000 as a first year at UVA. I cannot remember one that has been been, I guess the UVA football triple shooting, triple murder. That was different. Scandal is a tragedy. Yeah. Well set. Same with Morgan Harrington.

Well, same with Yardley Love. A lot of tragedies around here, you know, the summer of 2017, you know, a lot of tragedies around here. But in terms of just scandalous, I cannot believe this definitely, and you don't want to try and top it. It's gut-wrenching. Print, radio, and television. Follow these storylines closely. Comments continue to come in. One of the things we like talking about with you is the economic notebook. Same thing I do with Jerry Rackleff, where it's kind of scattershooting. I'm going to do the same thing here with you. Scatter shooting, anything you want to talk about. Economic notebook, Charlottesville. I've dubbed it in the headline that's on screen, the great, the good, the bad, the ugly here. Well, positive people because we're entrepreneurs first. Let's go with the great. Interesting trend in Charlottesville, we continue to see a lot of fitness and entertainment

businesses pop up. So Red Line fit performance up on Pantops is a gym dedicated to teenagers, teenagers only, who want to get serious about high school sports and college sports. You've got Vanessa, like one of the top fitness trainers in town from ACAC. She is opening, she took over that gym space. Is that Bullard? Vanessa Bullard, yeah. Right down the hill from Tavala.

She took that place over. It's going to have ice plunge tubs and a big sauna for like eight or nine people. Plus she has a studio. She calls it the sweat, not the sweat lodge, but the sweat something. I think EVE used to have that space. She will kick your ass. Then we have Blue Ridge Swim School is opening up in Berkmar in the old. lighting building. They're in Berkmark

Court. So it's going to have indoor swim spas for you to take your kid. So you no longer have to throw them in a quarry in the middle of the winter to teach him how to swim. You can take him to an indoor spot and they're building that out. They've got two 10 by 15 swim spas. So they'll be doing year-round swim

classes. So that's exciting. And then the fun aside from Coco's is getting much closer to opening. I know he's missed a lot of the summer season. Dr. Halloper, I've got to ask you about it. It's cool. It's beautiful. Beautiful. He's come on the show multiple times. He's an as great a guy here. They try to link him on Reddit. I say it all the time. I say it all the time on the show. Judah cringes when I say this. I'm going to say it again. Reddit, the Charlottesville subreddit is the drags of society. Yeah. The drags of society. Look, he's cringing right over here. Still, it's like a train wreck where I can't help but read it because it's like I want to see the drags and how they interact. Yeah. I mean, he's running, he's had issues getting an inspector to come out. I mean, I'll cut to the chase here.

We're at July 23rd. Yeah, I know. He's missed the summer. He's missed the summer. Yeah. But honestly, his rent is like 30 grand a month. I know, but this place is, your kids are going to go nuts. It looks amazing.

Yeah, he's just going to have to catch up. This gets back to the, what was the, delicious, yeah, six months of rent with no revenue. Yeah. Right? Yeah, I'm with you. But the fun new place, I don't have too many details on it. the smash center and it's not Seville smash.

It's where you go and you take a sledgehammer to old cars and old appliances. Oh, I haven't heard of this. And you karate kick pieces of drywall. Where is this? I don't have all the details yet. So it's basically a scream and stress place. Okay. So this is fresh news from Conan.

It's a franchise. There's a franchise coming. There's a franchise coming to Charlotte. Do we have any idea where? I don't yet. Okay. working on that. How'd you,

where'd you get this tidbit? You don't have to tell me a name. It's through my role in the Chamber of Commerce. There's going to be a business coming where you can destroy things, pay to destroy things. I actually like that idea. Oh, yeah, it's, it's fun. Yeah.

Any booze served? Probably not. I don't know. I don't know. Because the liability? Yeah, I didn't do a whole lot of research. And maybe it's after. Maybe it's the after party where you can go to the bar.

What is the mood of Dr. Halpert with Cocos? he's excited and understandably so the place is a trip not demoralized in any capacity for the delay now how much money out of pocket is this man going i i we haven't gotten into that um i know part of the delays was in him a lot of his stuff is coming from overseas um you know like one of his he had he tried to get me to fix a piece on one of his arcade pieces because it came broken and he's like if you can't do it i got to wait four weeks for him to replace the part um so he's had some some some supply chain issues and then, you know, just doing, you know, with just trying to get contractors. I mean, Charlottesville is so busy. It's hard to line up contractors to do your work.

I mean, this guy, and he initially told us the first time, before I even met him, I had a phone call with him. The buildout costs were pegged at $2 million to $3 million. That's closer to $3 million now. Yeah. The monthly rent, $25,000 to $35,000, depending on the, the point, the year and the lease. Yeah. And part of that, I know that, you know, there's, there was. some grace period because they were also completely renovating the facade over there.

I mean, you couldn't get... Personally guaranteed 10-year lease, Chuck Rockin. Yeah, well... Personally guaranteed. And then Charlestville City can't get an inspector over there to open. Yeah. This is effing crazy. No, I know. I know.

And he's not going to be the only one. I mean, there are lots of people who are waiting on. Even Great Harvest Bakery. The local health department inspector is out on paternity leave. So they had someone from Richmond got assigned to their case, and he calls them up and goes, okay, can you send me pictures of your vending machines? And they're like, no, it's take away. It's not vending machines.

Great Harvest Bakery, guys. We did the lease. We put them in the ATM space on the downtown mall and the Wells Fargo building, found a way to repurpose an ATM space. Initially, we were talking with the Coombay guys. You were there. Made perfect sense for Great Harvest. That lease was signed early Q4. last year. You did the signage. Yeah, and we've got it waiting to go up. That business will

kick ass once they open. Oh, it's going to be great. You know, they, the city required them to do a couple of things. We had to alter some of our designs to work around it. Electrical panel installed. Yeah, that was one of them. I mean, but yeah, so, so it's, but they're waiting on the health inspector. So now it's somebody out of Richmond because there's nobody locally and they didn't know what's going on. So, and I think, I think she told me that their application, the, the time frame lap so she has to reapply or she said it was going to be easier to reapply. But it's just like those are the kinds of things that just drive business owners crazy. And then you're thinking because, okay, you hire staff, but then you're not open.

So then the staff goes away. And you've already got people like Popitos who can't be open seven days a week because they can't get the staff. That's the thing that I do not get is, like I said, there are more job openings than there are unemployed people. but yet there are businesses without jobs it's just like so how do we have

unemployed people oh I don't want to serve pizza I don't want to work for 18 bucks an hour people that don't want to work then go find something that pays better do something start your own business do something and it's also to the point you've made

many times that I thought is a very applicable point and very poignant point people got so infatuated with the gig economy of working when they wanted to work that they now see actual punching a clock work as beneath that. As beneath, right?

Yeah, no, very much so. A couple other notes just in terms food and beverage, got Shake Shack opened, big line out there opening day. We had some fun with their graphics. Meza in Stonefield is moving into the old Trevinia space. That's going to be

coming end of the summer, beginning of September, I believe. Astor is kicking Astor. That place is really good and getting a lot of buzz. Dairy market, you've got a new restaurant moving in there. You've got one shifting across the aisle. I don't know if somebody's coming into their space. Sunpin seems to be doing really well, which is nice. I was

a little surprised I was over there, and Relay Active is down to Thursday through Sunday hours. I'm worried about dairy market. But the thing I don't get, it's like, okay, people run in this crazy people run in this hot weather. They sell running gear. People who don't want to be out in the hot weather do yoga. They have yoga classes and sell yoga gear, but they're only open three or four days a week for the summer, which tells me that somehow they're too tied to the students. It's either they're too tied to the students or they're realizing that selling commodities on a shelf is a tough business. Well, I mean, but the class space helps draw folks in. So it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Also, when I was there, I noticed that the old Milkman's bar, which is now part of Star Hill, they had a whole curtain pulled across it, which I don't know if they did that, you know, for liability. reason, so nobody will jump behind the bar. But it was just very off-putting the way it looked to me. A couple of other interesting things going on. Roeback is looking at more retail operations, obviously outside of Charlottesville. They're supposed to be having one open later this fall and looking at probably a half dozen next year, which would be really... They're crushing it. And they got that big $50 million investment, which obviously is fueling a lot of this growth. and then the next interesting thing is the closure of Emerson up on 29 North. That's a pretty big facility.

You know, they made robotic things, but they've also got corporate offices there, 150 people, I think. Recently announced. Recently announced. That's a pretty prime piece of real estate because it's close to the technology boom up there and it's close to Injik. so it'll be interesting to see who goes into that. And then one of my favorite people in town, Icarus. I actually ran into Dave at the gym the other day. The knee braces?

The guy that looks like Fabio. Fabio, Thor, take your pick. You know, just this idea of we're manufacturing. Actually manufacturing here in Charlotte's still doing 3D printing. It's all custom made. We just did a project for them. They were invited by the VA to demonstrate. what it would be to have like a rolling consult cart.

So we designed the panels for the cart where they can take the different sizes. It's basically to get somebody sized for an e-brace, and then they have the computer. They can plug in all the information and then zip the information back. And they're looking at creating a really long-term relationship with the VA and actually putting this device in dozens of clinics around the country. And he was saying that they're on track to get up to 100 employees by the end. of the year. Damn.

Which is, yeah, and they're stuck, for lack of a better word, in this downtown office space because finding a flex space that has good office space, has good meeting space, you know, has the creative space for the engineering and design team. Implying. It's really hard. There are a few. In fact, this Emerson place could be an interesting one. It may be too big from a production standpoint because those 3D printers aren't big.

I actually haven't had that conversation. with him. I know he's been talking to the folks at McKenzie as well, trying to find just the right thing. I'm worried that they may have to go out towards Zion's crossroads, and Al Marr, Charlottesville, Al Marr could lose them. Right. Because there isn't that kind of facility, there aren't many of them in Charlottesville, and certainly not any that are available right now. But I know they're on the hunt for, you know, a consolidated space because they've got manufacturing down on Broadway. They've got, they've got a conference room full of shipping boxes right here on Market Street. I've seen that. You know, but it's a boom, you know, they've got a sales force all over the country.

They're doing some sales internationally. It's really, it's really an impressive operation. And then the final thing I'll mention is just the housing. You know, I just said, you know, today they had that new apartment over at the James, got their sign up. Looks, you know, it's a luxury unit. I've been working with the Bloom on Ivy and with Verve getting their leasing offices. open. A lot of, they're spending a lot of money on marketing. Yeah, the Verve leasing office on the corner on the midtown. They're on the corner of 10th and Maine. Yeah. And Bloom is actually right next to Coop de Ville's over on Ellie. Yeah. In fact, we, he had me come in and hang banners on the backside so all the kids at Coops for mids summers could see that. That was genius spot. He's Conan Owen, their own owner of Surveedia, Central Virginia, some visuals for Sir Speedy on

screen. How can folks contact you before we close the show and what do you have to offer? Best thing to do is go to our website, sur speedy charlottesville.com. Right now, the big thing that we're doing a lot of wearables, Colonial Webb just rebranded. We had to outfit their team with hats and shirts. We got the bright neon shirt, so no one will electrocute them or drop a girder on them. Doing a lot of work with nonprofits with some of their wearables, getting ready for back to school. doing a lot of work. Lakeside Middle School is giving a yearly planner to each one of their kids. So that's an exciting project that we took on.

And the nice thing for that is they ordered that online last year. So getting folks to order locally, did that with the donut kitchen, doing their labels for their fried pies, which are delicious. If you think we got the hostess, you remember those old hostess, plays pie? Make them good.

That's what donut kitchen has. Conan Owen. Sir Speedy, Central Virginia. you are very good in this setting. Thank you. Very good in this setting. Always comes prepared. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera.

I'm sprinting to a 145 meeting that we have with potential new client for Conan Owen and Judah Wickhauer. My name is Jerry Miller and this, the I Love Seville Show. Don't miss tomorrow's program. More breaking news tomorrow, including guys some highlights and maybe some low lights from the Charlottesville City Council meeting for you to watch and listen to. Thank you kindly for joining us. So long, everybody. I think you need to change your name to Herardo Molina.