The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Albemarle & CVille Economic Dev Teams Meeting; AlbCo & CVille Econ Teams Not Met In 5+ Years

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Albemarle & CVille Economic Dev Teams Meeting AlbCo & CVille Econ Teams Not Met In 5+ Years What Can AlbCo/CVille Econ Teams Do Better? UVA Influence + AlbCo/CVille Econ Teams Hidden Costs Of Home Ownership In Virginia UVA’s Travis Watson Starts Local Summer Camp Shenanigans Toys Celebrates 50th Anniversary UVA Baseball Advances To College World Series Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air 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.

Good Monday afternoon, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville Show. Very much enjoy connecting with you guys through the I Love Seville Network in our studio in downtown Charlottesville. Today's program is about Charlottesville, Almaro County, and Central Virginia, a 300,000-person market that we love. We run multiple businesses within this market. We live within this market and we're proud to call it home.

And it will be home for, I hope, generations of Millers to come. Maybe generations of Whitcowers to come. Ladies, Judas, single and ready to mingle on that note right there. We have some fantastic reporting yet again from Sean Tubbs of the Charlottesville Community Substack that he's highlighted the economic development authorities in both the city in Charlottesville and Alamaro County will meet tomorrow. Interestingly, in his reporting, he highlights, and I think this could be the bigger story, frankly, the last time the economic development authorities for Charlottesville and Alamaro County have met in joint fashion,

in a joint meeting, has been five plus years ago. I found that surprising, if not shocking. You have two jurisdictions that are separated by an invisible line that will forever be linked and synced that have met in an economic development fashion, not for five plus years. Ladies and gentlemen, you should ask why is that the case. And we should all wonder what these authorities should be discussing and how they can continue to move our respective jurisdictions forward positively. I would hope that one of the topics that's

highlighted in tomorrow's meeting, four o'clock city space, is how Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville can put strategies and plans in place that are not directly tied to the University of Virginia from an economic development standpoint. It's no secret that Central Virginia goes as the University of Virginia goes. We all know that. But if your elected officials, the staff that we pay through taxpayer dollars, we should hope, if not expect, that they have paths or plans or strategies that are not affiliated with what the University of Virginia is doing. Paths, plans, and strategies that are affiliated with both Almarill County, respectively, Charlottesville, respectively,

and what these two jurisdictions can do in joint fashion. I want to unpack that topic today. I also want to talk shenanigans. A 50-year anniversary for a toy store. 50 years for a toy store. This is a milestone moment. Anyone that works in retail knows the headwinds that retail faces. You have a toy store that's celebrating a 50-year birthday. We're going to champion and celebrate that on today's show. Also on the program, we're going

to talk about the hidden costs of home ownership. The hidden costs of home ownership in Virginia, per a recent survey, this number is going to surprise you, ladies and gentlemen. According to analysis by the website Bankrate, the hidden costs of home ownership in the Commonwealth of Virginia is an astounding $1,471 a month. We'll put that in perspective today on the I Love Seville show. We'll talk Virginia baseball advancing to the College World Series. And Travis Watson, a basketball legend, launching a summer camp. We'll highlight what T. Watson is doing in this community. Let's weave Judah Wickhauer in on a two-shot.

Director, producer, community luminary, Judah Wickauer. I don't know about that. We talked last week about the Mel's Cafe GoFundMe. It's now surpassed $8,000. It was right under $8,000. Their goal is $20,000 in totality for that GoFundMe. So they saw about $300 to $400 of increase over the weekend. That's great. We're excited to see that the needle is continuing to

move forward. Yeah. We would love to see Mel's reopen in some capacity. We'll follow the storyline closely. Economic Development Authorities, Alamaro County, and the City of Charlottesville, where would you like to begin? Did you know that the Economic Development Authorities in Charlottesville and Alamaro County existed? No, not specifically. What do you make of the fact that they have not met in joint capacities in five plus years. How much do we know how much they are tied to the politics of our region or is it more of a is it fairly free

of the politics that go on in our local boards? They're planning commissions. So they're appointed. yeah so they're they're appointed okay um i would expect that these two economic development authorities are um free of uh politics democrats republicans independents libertarians social. Their goal is to focus on the overall goodwill

and the overall good health and economies of Albemarle and Charlottesville. Albemarle County, Sean Tubbs has got great reporting on this. Ten years it's got now an economic development authority. Ten years. We first saw this economic development authority this year really spring into action. Actually, it was last year, last May, with the 462-acre, $58 million purchase of Rivanna Station to build an industrial park for the defense sector.

Donna Price, then a supervisor, chairwoman of the Alamaro County Board of Supervisors, said it was the greatest economic development turn of events since the University of Virginia in Alamaro County. The defense sector, a $1.2 billion with a B economic impact per year on the area. These are a couple things that surprised me, that I think may surprise you and may be fodder for your cocktail party. Number one, I am perplexed why Charlottesville's Economic Development Authority and Albemarle County's Economic Development Authority have not met

in joint fashion in the last five years. It's been more than five years since they've met together. Here's some of the suggestions, and this is just one man's opinion, that I would hope these authorities are discussing when they meet tomorrow at 4 o'clock in city space. I would like to see a plan,

and Judah, we're going to weave you in here with your commentary and perspective. Okay, so can't wait to hear what you have to say. I would like these two authorities to have a plan in place that's not directly tied to the University of Virginia. I would like the plan in place to be communicated and be very transparent for taxpayers. If they're not meeting, if they have not met in more than five years, the results of tomorrow's meeting should be front and center news. And I would expect after this show, you'll see legacy media covering tomorrow's

four o'clock meeting. I'd like to see what their ideas are for keeping the economy moving forward. SANS, University of Virginia influence, whether that's breweries, wineries, hiking, music, outdoors, whether that's working in conjunction with the Charlottesville Almaro Convention and Visitors Bureau, the marketing arm for Charlottesville and Almaro County. I would hope the economic development authorities for Almaro County and Charlottesville, a joint meeting tomorrow at 4 o'clock. The communication is very obvious. Perhaps the CACVB personnel would be at these meetings. If you're doing economic development concepts

and you're not weaving your marketing arm or your marketing team into it, then you're not seeing the forest through the trees because the marketing is the spokesman or the megaphone for your econ strategies your dev strategies your development ideas i would love to see these two authorities perhaps assess the recent chamber of commerce report that talked retail tax revenue collected it was a report that highlighted what the first quarter of last year versus the first quarter of this year the chamber presented this data with a rosy viewpoint of hey all the jurisdictions increased I pushed

back on that rosy viewpoint on this show by saying of course the retail tax collection is going to increase year over year. Look at what inflation is doing. It's making everything more expensive. If everything's more expensive, you're going to collect more tax revenue. That's not an indication of the economy actually being stronger. I would like to know if year over year, the economy is in fact stronger in Charlottesville and Alamaro County. In fact, I would love a comparison of the economy now versus maybe 2019 prior to the pandemic. Yeah.

So you could see COVID is over. We can call 2020, 2021, 2022, maybe a portion of 2023, an anomaly. But 2024, the first six months, is something that we can utilize as a barometer, a benchmark to previous time. Your thoughts on any of this? Well, I hope that they also are updating their expectations, updating their ideas, their plans to also include post-COVID changes. We've all seen what COVID has done, even now that it's gone.

We're seeing different, I think, different, what's the word I'm looking for? Different cycles of, not cycles, but, you know, people aren't going to restaurants as much. People have changed their shopping habits. And I would like to see that recognized. And hopefully, you know, there's an acknowledgement of those changes. And it would be great to see some thoughts on how we change with the times. First time in five years, tomorrow at 4 o'clock. Are we going to hear, are we going to have data presented by, I mean, think about some of the key drivers of the economy

in Albemarle and Charlottesville, the wedding industry, tourism. Are we going to hear from hotel years? Will we hear from Russ Kronberg, arguably the top hotel year in the market, the guy that manages the Borsad property and is basically C-suite with the UVA Foundation? Russ knows what's up. Smart guy. Are we going to hear from the head of Friends of Seville, downtown Charlottesville. Is it Greer Achenbaum? Achenbach. Will we hear from her? What's the plan in place to help us get out of the shadow at UVA?

Because an economy is going to be even stronger if it's able to keep ticking in the right direction and then get the boost from UVA. Keep ticking on its own and then get the boost from UVA. Keep ticking on its own and then get the boost from UVA. What's the plan to manage the economy from a housing standpoint? We're about to talk about hitting costs. And make sure you're getting lower thirds on screen, please. We're about to talk about the hitting costs of home ownership here in a matter of moments. What's the plan to help manage housing? One of the things I'm extremely nervous about with our economy in Charlottesville and Alamaro, this is maybe my top concern with the Charlottesville and Alamaro economies,

is the labor pool, the shrinking nature of the labor pool that cannot afford to live here. If you're running a restaurant. A brewery. A wedding event venue. A winery. A bar. A retail store. A music venue. And you can't find staff. To keep your restaurant open.

Your wedding venue operatable. How are you going to stay in business? Yeah. If the labor pool is shrinking because the labor pool can't afford to live in Charlottesville or Albemarle County or close to it, how will small and medium-sized businesses stay open and driving revenue and driving the economy forward? An economy is only as strong as its small, medium-sized businesses and its middle class. These are basic principles of economics. If the middle class and if small and medium-sized businesses can't staff or a middle class can't afford to live here, you are left with an economy that is not going to have personnel to run businesses.

We're going to see that with Mel's Cafe. Mel's Cafe is facing its second, it's facing a new generation of potential owners. Tanisha Hudson, the activist, the niece of Mel Walker who passed away unexpectedly, she's promised to keep Mel's Cafe open. They have a GoFundMe that's currently running. A little over $8,000 collected, a $20,000 goal. How are they going to keep Mel's Cafe in operation? Is Tanisha going to not work her 9-to-5 job to work the grill at Mel's? Or is the plan to hire somebody to run Mel's from a day-to-day standpoint?

That would definitely be my guess. Shenanigans, 50-year anniversary. How do you keep shenanigans in operation for another 50 years. So if I'm on these two teams, I need to figure out the following very succinctly. What is our path of success outside of the UVA influence? Number one. Number two, how do we ensure or maintain that a labor pool can afford to live around here

and to staff the businesses that need this pool of labor? Number three, if I'm in these authorities, I would try to figure out how to capitalize on the investments made by Amazon and Louisa, $11 billion, Northrop Grumman and Waynesboro, over $200 million for a new factory, and what's going to come from the potential upside for those two projects that are right bookending Al Marl in Charlottesville. I'd also try to put a path in play with the CACVB, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the marketing arm. Clear communication.

If they haven't met in five years, what's the communication channel like? Finally, I would make sure that this meeting, the results of this meeting, are very accessible and communicated to taxpayers and to community members and to residents in Charlottesville and Alamaro. They haven't met in five years. These are arguably two of the most important committees that are in Charlottesville and Alamaro County. First time they're meeting in five plus years in joint fashion. I would provide reports to the Board of Supervisors and then to city council from these meetings.

I think a white paper or a case study, just like the one the chamber authored, the chamber, Albemarle County, and the city of Charlottesville, they did a market analysis on the economic impact of the defense sector. And they found the defense sector generates $1.2 billion, with a B, in economic impact, this analysis. I would do a similar type of analysis for real estate

and a similar type of analysis for tourism, weddings, breweries, wineries. Call it the wedding industry, call it tourism, whatever you want to call it. I would bet that if we had those white papers done, tourism would be number one, economic generator. Defense sector would be in a two slot, real estate in the three slot. And those three analysis that are done, tourism, defense sector, and real estate, the economic impacts on Charlottesville and Alamaro County, are each of those separate from the University of Virginia, and they could be utilized as a foundation for a

plan moving forward. Big meeting tomorrow at four o'clock, and gentlemen I hope to see this in newspaper and television and radio legacy media anything you want to add on this topic Judah Wickhauer no I agree with you I think it's past time that they met Sean Tubbs notes the fact

that at the May meeting of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, at least one representative of the board expressed a lack of knowledge about the role the defense sector plays in the local economy. So some education would certainly go a long way with those white papers you're talking about there you go what's the next topic on there and then you set the stage for us why don't we go to the shenanigans one

because I want to make sure that's celebrated with a lower third you set the table for us and then we'll get back to the hidden costs of home ownership because the hidden costs of home ownership according to bank rate is more of a fact. Bankrate's calculating that the hidden cost of home ownership in the Commonwealth of Virginia, if you want to put the lower third on, then we'll go to shenanigans, is $17,647 a year, or $1,471 a month. And that hidden cost of home ownership is tied with, I'll read exactly,

property taxes, homeowner's insurance, home maintenance costs, electricity, internet, cable bills, stuff that is not fixed that have risen by 26% in the last four years. Take a look at your insurance policies. Take a look at your Dominion Electric bill. Take a look at your Internet Xfinity Comcast Ting bill. Take a look at your HOA fees. Bankrate is saying that they've risen 26% in the last four years. When you go and pay your mortgage through your mortgage provider online and you see they're collecting more every month that's going into the escrow account, that's the taxes moving, the insurance moving. Right. Okay. That's what's why the collection is greater.

That was the surprise I got the first time I noticed that, you know, I think I got an email or something saying that my mortgage had gone up and I had set the, you know, I just set a flat, I thought I was just going to be paying the flat rate of my mortgage until whenever. And so I was like, well, how does that work? And obviously I found out that, well, property taxes have gone up. So the bank now has to take more money and put it in escrow for those taxes. And that's got to come from somewhere. A lot of people say, oh, that's great for your home value.

Dude, that's paper value. That's not good for you. That just means you have less money in your pocket. Does that mean you could have more money when you sell? Yes, but you're still selling. And trust me, our family just went through this. You could be selling at top dollar, but you're buying at top dollar. Yeah.

The value of your place going up, paper money. On paper money. Unrealized gains. Right. How's the feed over there? Good? Does LinkedIn need to be replaced over there? Recheck?

John's saying LinkedIn, we're a little choppy. Let's see. You guys doing well on Facebook that are watching? Let us know. We may need to reconnect LinkedIn for John. Thank you for letting us know, John. All right, set the stage for shenanigans when you can. I want to make sure we champion this.

Genehu, thank you for watching on Twitter. LinkedIn is live. I'm not sure there's anything I can do on my end. It seems to be working okay. All right, go shenanigans. Shenanigans has amazingly been around since 1974. And they've got fairly new owners in terms of compared to the 50 years they've been open.

Amanda and Jimmy Stevens took ownership in 2019. Was Kay Rady the founder of Shenanigans? This article does not say. Does anyone know this? You don't have to look it up. Just set the stage here. I'll look it up. The current owners have been modernizing the business.

Mary Rady. Mary K. Rady. They've digitized the inventory system, updated the website, and just done a lot to expand Shenanigans Reach beyond the local area, which, as a lot of us know, is one of the best ways to keep a business current and strong. Stephanie, can you confirm the connection?

We've got folks saying it's going in and out. Stephanie, thank you for letting us know. Logan, Wells, Claylow, and Georgia are also asking about that. Everything looks fine on... Thank you, Logan.

Let us know if it's better. We apologize with this. We're at the mercy of... Everything looks good on my end. I'm not seeing any... Let us know if it's any better, ladies. We appreciate that. Erratic swings.

I want to highlight 50 years of a retail business in operation. I want to highlight that if your toy store goes 50 years, you are, your kids are shopping there and then you as adults as you get into adulthood and have kids your kids' kids will shop there. Like

this is a pretty significant milestone. This is a milestone of a business willing or able to withstand the Internet age or pivot during an Internet age. They've had two locations. Shenanigans initially at North Barracks Road

before they moved to West Main Street. Mary K. Rady, I hope I'm saying your last name right, R-A-D-Y, moved them from North Barracks to West Main. At North Barracks, when Shenanigans was open, they were there alongside Whimsies, who moved to Stonefield. And the Shenanigans-Whimsies combination were perfect compliments for each other, because Whimsies had clothing for kids and babies and

shenanigans had toys for kids and babies and older, uh, you know, young teens when they went Stonefield to West Maine, some were a bit surprised by that, but both have had success. Thoughts Judah. I mean,

I love this place. If you've ever been in there it's uh it's bright it's uh colorful uh it's a lot of fun uh even for uh even for old cratchety people like myself uh who still have a little bit old and cratchety who still have a little bit of childhood left in us. And for kids, it's a blast. And we apologize for the streaming issues here. I know that there was a...

Our ISP had an outage over the weekend, which was in the legacy media. I'm wondering if it's continuing to some kind. Ginny Hu said Twitter feed's freezing and buffering and she's moved over to Facebook to listen. Thank you, Ginny. Strange. I think any

small business that is going to have success moving forward is going to have to navigate a good online presence with a good in-store presence. It's called omni-experiential shopping. Omni-experiential is when you're able to go into a location and you're provided value that you cannot just get somewhere online. We've highlighted on this show some of the retailers that do it well. Monique Mosier at The Happy Cook does this extremely well. Patty Zeller at Animal Connection does this extremely well. And the team at Shenanigans does this extremely well.

Toys are unique in that if a kid or their parents can go in there and touch and feel them, the likelihood of them purchasing and leaving with one is great. So 50 years more, we hope, is in store for this fantastic toy store. Yeah, no doubt. What's the next headline you have over there? Let's see. We've got UVA's Travis Watson starting

a local summer camp. With a boxing gym. What's that? With a boxing gym. Nice. Well, this is your headline. The camp is going to provide a unique experience. Basketball, boxing,

bolstering children's skills in both of the sports, as well as their physical, social, and personal development. And, I mean, this is just the kind of thing that, you know, talking about Admiral and Charlottesville economic development, you know, this is the kind of thing that Charlottesville needs is more, you know, more reasons for people to come to Charlottesville economic development, this is the kind of thing that Charlottesville needs, is more reasons for people to come to Charlottesville. And having a great summer camp for kids, I think that's just another feather in the cap. Especially summer camps. How many moms and dads have tried to get their kids in summer camp. Especially summer camps.

How many moms and dads have tried to get their kids in summer camp? Yeah, exactly. You're doing summer camps set up a year in advance for summer camps. You can't just send your kids to the pool every day. No. You can. But it's going to be a long day for mom and dad. As a kid, I wouldn't want to go to the pool every day.

Well, you burn. No. I burn the first time if I stay out all day long. Do you tan? A tiny bit. Yeah. But the thing is, if I don't overdo it at the beginning of the summer, then I pretty much just... I love the pool. I like a pool too, but I wouldn't want to go to the same pool every day for...

How long is summer break these days for kids? 90 days. Is it still? I mean, I would say our boy got out at the end of May, goes back mid to late August. So June, July, let's call it 60, maybe 70 to 80 days. Yeah. I didn't know, you know, it was always a three month summer vacation when I was a kid and I know they've made some changes at some places. I didn't know if that was the same year.

What was Judah Wickhauer's best summer? My best summer? Man. I was just happy, like, tromping through the woods. And we found, you know, we'd find pathways to the industrial parkway in Portland, Maine, where the comic book store was. I was just happy to be left alone and go do my own thing with friends, run around the woods, go crazy.

What about that Virginia baseball team? College World Series for Brian O'Connor after a pounding of Kansas State this past weekend. His third time in four years, the Cavaliers are in Omaha. And he's the winningest coach? The winningest since he took over the University of Virginia program. His program has posted more wins in college baseball than any other program since O'Connor's come to Charlottesville. That is amazing. Baseball is a sport that has seen some better days. Today's child is looking for maybe a faster sport, maybe a little bit more engagement,

maybe a little more attention deficit disorder appealing. As kids spend time in front of screens and on iPads and on phones and on YouTube, they're accustomed to instantaneous gratification. And sometimes baseball does not provide that. You get three to four plate appearances per game. You might have the ball, depending on the position you play, hit to you one or two, three times a game, if not any at all. There's a couple of coach-pitched baseball games where our oldest son would be playing somewhere in the field. Now, granted, this is six-, seven-, and eight-year-olds, so oftentimes the ball is not put into play, where he didn't see a single ground ball or fly ball or hit hit to him.

He had three plate appearances, and he said to us after the game this was a little boring brian o'connor and virginia baseball are the antithesis of that and i think through this kids can come to the game free marketing plan that virginia baseball is putting into play as they're getting a generation, maybe two generations, because he's been on the job 20 plus years, two generations of kids in Central Virginia to fall in love with baseball at a time when baseball has a lot of kids choosing other sports to fall in love with. And I think that should be something that we highlight also with Brian O'Connor's legacy. Not only the victories, the national championship, hosting regionals, hosting super regionals, his dominance.

But the fact that this baseball coach has got two generations now of youngsters in central Virginia to fall in love with a sport that otherwise is losing market share. No doubt. Brian O'Connor, Virginia Baseball, best of luck. Judah Wittkower, Jerry Miller on the I Love Seville show. Tomorrow, the connection issues will be better. We promise you that. We will take a look into it. Thank you kindly for joining us.

So long, everybody, and take care. Thank you.