The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - BREAKING: Dewberry Hotel Under Contract For Purchase For $9M; Goal To Create 98 Micro Apartments

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: BREAKING: Dewberry Hotel Under Contract For Purchase Under Contract For $9M; Goal To Create 98 Micro Apartments Equity Raise Underway; Why This Is Great News For CVille Common House Building Sells For $2,150,000 On 9/21 New Ownership Has Restaurant & Office Plans For CH Activists Attack Dairy Central Phase 3 Plans CVille Councilors Want Zoning Code Changed… Again Mike Payne & Juan Wade Push Zoning Text Amendment 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.

Welcome to the I Love Seville Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the water cooler of content and conversation. This, the number one ranked media platform in Charlottesville, Admiral County, and across Central Virginia. A lot we're going to cover on the broadcast today, and I'm extremely looking forward to connecting with you, the viewer, and listener, as my phone is absolutely blowing up right now with what we're going to talk about on the show today. We have news of the Dewberry Hotel now being under contract. This will be news that is reported upon by print, radio, and television. As soon as we sign off air, I hope they do that immediately. This is a skeleton that has plagued the downtown mall for an extended period of time

and has seen multiple owners, including Halsley Minor, and John Dewberry, who was dubbed by Bloomberg magazine, the Emperor of Empty Lots. John Dewberry, by now, he's almost a household name in Charlottesville. He's almost a meme in Charleston in Central Virginia. He grew up in Waynesboro. He played the quarterback position for the Georgia Tech,

Rambling Rec, the Yellow Jackets. And now he's a hotel year and developer out of the Atlanta area. He purchased the Dewberry Hotel when Halsley Miner's Empire started crumbling. Minor extremely overextended and saw what was, you know, in a lot of ways, the pinnacle of wealth at one time crumble because of being over-levered. Dewberry thought he got a steal of a deal with the landmark, a boutique hotel that was planned with Lee Danielson and Halsley Minor of C-Net fame.

And Dewberry thought he was buying a structure and an opportunity with upside for pennies on the dollar. And in a lot of ways he was. A lot of ways John Dewberry got a steal of a deal. The reality is Charlottesville is an extremely difficult ecosystem to navigate. especially if you're navigating this ecosystem from a development standpoint, and especially if you're navigating this ecosystem, and this is just true as a wealthy, white, out-of-market developer, which John Dewberry was and is.

Michael Payne, who's a two-term city counselor, Michael Payne, who will come up later in the show, because last night Michael Payne and Juan Diego Wade both said on the record, that they would like to change the zoning code yet again. I mean, just absolute idiocy with Michael Payne and Juan Diego Wade to say on the record last night outside the Jefferson School moments after Chris Henry, the president of Stony Point Development, the sudden law of Paul Manning was verbally crucified

by activists in the 10th and Page neighborhood or from the 10th and Page Neighborhood Association about Phase 3 Dairy Market. and I'll explain that here at a matter of moments. There was a meeting last night, and after that meeting where Chris Henry is looking for community approval for dairy central, dairy market, more apartments right over there on Grady Avenue, Juan Wade and Michael Payne talked to the media.

They talk on the record with media and attendance and said, we need to change the zoning code yet again. This darn thing just got rewritten in 2023. What, three years ago? and it's barely had a chance to breathe. And here you have a man who just moved out of his parents' basement, Michael Payne, a man who is extremely nice, Juan Diego Wade, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

I'm being extremely straightforward here. On record saying we need to rewrite the zoning code again. It's insulting, it's flabbergasting. The reason I'm referencing this now is it's an example of the challenges that developers and wealthy individuals and, you know, entrepreneurs and those that want to, you know, run a business in the black but make their community better? I mean, that's what we do as business owners. We run our businesses in the black for profit, but do it in a way where we want to make our community better.

Who's going to put that effort into Charlottesville here when you have Michael Payne and Juan Diego Wade shooting off on the hip about changing the rules in the middle of the game? It's just an example of how challenging it is to develop or build or make something special happen in the city. And that's what John Dewberry initially tried to do. When he purchased the Dewberry Hotel from Halsley Minor, he wanted to build something special. And John Dewberry had a deal in place with former city counselor, Mike Signer, former mayor Mike Signer of Charlottesville, for some real estate tax. advantages, some real estate tax abatement, and some discounted parking spaces, a lot of them in the Water Street garage, which the city controlled. Of course he needed parking spaces in the Water

Street garage, John Dewberry. He was bringing a hotel to market. Hotels need parking. And of course he needed some real estate tax abatement or some real estate tax relief. He was building a massive hotel in downtown Charlottesville, and goodness gracious, that's expensive to do. Michael Payne, before he was on counsel for his first term, he caught wind of city council at the time, offering what he called his words a white, wealthy, out-of-market developer. Economic incentives. And Michael Payne centered his campaign in the fragile shadows of August 11th and August 12th. We were not even healed.

We're not even healed now, but as fresh as it can be from A-11 and A-12, in Charlottesville. And Michael Payne ran on a campaign on a platform of, we cannot offer this white, rich guy from Atlanta, tax relief and economic incentives to build a hotel that is only going to cater to the rich. And that strategy worked. It worked because that was a time in Charlottesville City where we were struggling to find our brand identity, figure out what we stood for. We just had the deepest darkest days in city history, A11 and A12, and Payne understood it, and he capitalized on it, and once he started running on a campaign of white, out-of-market-rich developer, we can't offer these tax incentives. The deal fell apart. The tax relief went away, the parking spaces went

away, and Dewberry got pissed. And when Dewberry got pissed, he did nothing for a long period of time. He paid his taxes. He did the bare minimum with his property. but he did nothing for a long period of time. Now, recently, John Dewberry has run into some financial hardship. He's run into some financial hardship tied to some intellectual property challenges and infringement issues. He's run into some hardship because the commercial real estate game is a challenging one to navigate. Rates go up and down. Debt positions fluctuate.

They float. They're not fixed. Occupancy goes up and. down. It is a tough nut to crack commercial real estate. And he had some challenges, Dewberry. And eventually, City Hall, and this happened mere months ago, issued a threat. And they said to DuBerry, you're going to do something with this property. And if you don't do something with this property, we may pursue eminent domain, which will allow us to considerably uptick your tax base. and we're going to uptake your tax base so significantly

that this may have spooked Duberry into doing something. Of course he wanted to sell the property. So here's the breaking news of the story. The Dewberry Hotel is now under contract for purchase. Under contract, I'm not reporting that it's closed yet. It's under contract for $9 million. The potential buyers are proposing, converting the Dewberry Hotel, into a 98-unit boutique apartment.

They want to call it the Halprin. They hope to close on this before the end of this year. That is aggressive. We have 90 days left, basically, for the end of this year. Remember, you lose a week at Thanksgiving, and you lose about 10 days to two weeks around Christmas. So closing is hoped or anticipated or planned before the end of 2026. the plan is to make the most infamous, infamous structure in Charlottesville into 98 luxury apartments.

It's a very intelligent, adaptive reuse of a hotel into multifamily. And the plan is, of those 98, 56 studios and 42 junior one-bedroom apartments. The studios are projected at roughly 400 square feet and the junior one bedrooms at approximately finally 500 and 30 square feet. They're going to allocate at least their planning 10% of the apartment stock to be affordable at an area median income of 60% or below. Remember, our area median income locally is $140,000. So that's median family household income.

If we take $140,000 and we times that by 0.6, what are you looking at? like 84K there. So 84 or less, they'll allocate 10% of the stock to. The folks that have it under contract, it's an investment group. Their idea is that this concrete shell is an asset. And they value this concrete shell at about $5 million of added improvements to the property. The plan is to add a restaurant on the downtown mall level, 3,800 square foot indoor restaurant space, plus a 2,000 square foot enclosed outdoor dining patio. They want to add office and incubator space, co-working space, a rooftop, a rooftop amenity. Now, this isn't a done deal, and I want to explain why it's not a done deal yet, and I encourage you, the viewer and listener, to share the show

because this is as impactful of news that Charlottesville has seen in an extended period of time, and you're hearing it first here on the number one media platform of Charlottesville. Before I get to the meat and potatoes of this story, I love to give Corbyn Snow and Snow's outdoor living some attention. Corbyn Snow's team is 100 plus years old at Snow's, okay, multi-generation of family business. His team is doing a custom 275 square foot patio, fire pit, seating wall, turf, handpick hydranias, and other planning at our four-acre house in Ivy. And I've absolutely been impressed, and my wife called it a joyous experience working with snows. Okay.

There's someone you contact for heartscape or landscape or outdoor amenity. It's Corbyn and it snows outdoor living. We're doing it. and it's been a special, special experience. Now, let's get back to the breaking news. If you're just tuning into the program, the Dewberry is under contract right now for $9 million. This ownership team is looking to raise a lot of money.

And the idea is the total project is earmarked or estimated, the back of the napkin, if you may. Now, it's a little bit more planned out than back of the napkin, but at this stage of a project, calling something that, that is $42 million for a project, that's our cap of what we're going to spend is unrealistic, because let's cut to the chase. Shit hits the fan. Any project like this, shit is going to hit the fan, and you're going to probably go over a budget.

But the estimate right now is the total project cost is $42 million. And the team behind it is looking to raise $15.5 million in equity. And the game plan is this. It's a very intriguing concept. Let's pass the hat amongst Charlottesville and Almorell counties, well-heeled, affluent, and wealthy community. And let's explain that the economics of this, the return on investment, are not going to be what you could potentially garner in other opportunities. But the return on investment is philanthropic. The return on investment is what's best for Charlottesville, and the return on investment is what's best for the other properties that you own in downtown Charlottesville around the Dewberry.

So take someone like me who owns a chunk of a building at 408 East Market Street and positions around Charlottesville and Almar County that are out of the downtown mall's walking range. The idea is, Jerry, invest into this ownership group, help us come up with $15.5 million in equity, because once this project is finished, then everything else downtown is going to gain tailwinds in positive momentum, which will further drive value for your portfolio positions around the downtown mall, Charlottesville. Maybe Amar County, that could be a little bit of a stretch. but certainly Charlottesville and the downtown mall. And that strategy is without question accurate. The ROI on contributing to this $15.5 million equity raise

is not going to be the best out there. But how do you quantify or qualify or determine the ROI if you have the building next door, the building across the street, the building a few doors down, the building on the block over? That's difficult to determine. One thing we can say is the Dewberry, as we know it today,

which is an epicenter for hobos and public urination, an epicenter for rats and rodents spreading disease, and an epicenter for intravenous heroin needle usage, graffitied, disgusting, and nasty. It's not driving return on investment or real estate value. It's not driving quality of life. and it's certainly in the middle of the downtown mall and making this community, talk about it,

discuss it, and tourists point to it and say, what the hell is that? It's hurting property values. If there's a 98-unit apartment complex, a restaurant, a co-working space, executive office space, rooftop amenities, and this sexy building, which was always what it was intended to be,

maybe not a hotel, but 98 micro-apartments, that's going to drive value for downtown Charlottesville. Now, here's an interesting wrinkle that you need to consider viewers and listeners. And again, I have every media outlet in town watching the program right now. We have three city counselors watching us right now. We have an Almore County supervisor. I see all of City Hall watching the program. Right now, Chris Engel and Sam Sanders are clenching their patoukas.

What's the Yiddish for your butt? Your Tukas? Yep, that's it. Sam and Chris Engel are clenching their Tukas right now as we're talking about this. City Hall is offering incentives as they should. The developer is working with Charlottesville on a potential TIF arrangement, tax increment financing. And this TIF arrangement would keep the project's real estate tax at a current level, at its current level for 10 years.

The development team estimates the purchasing team estimates that would have a net present value exceeding of $2 million. And the development team is working with City Hall. about potential additional upfront public capital for construction costs in the public right away. This is something I'd like to know more. What exactly has the city agreed to so far? Are we going to agree to parking spaces? I get the fact that the real estate tax rate should be held, and holding it for 10 years makes perfect sense to me.

I'm curious to see if there's parking spaces included, if those parking spaces are included at no rate or a subsidized rate and for how long. I also am curious to see how the city is going to help this developer navigate construction because this is literally a building that would be constructed in maybe the most difficult position in all of Charlottesville City. I mean, building 98 microunits, a restaurant, incubator space, co-working space, executive office space on the downtown mall, For 18 months to two years, that's going to be a construction nightmare.

And it's certainly going to be a construction nightmare for anyone that owns a building around the downtown mall or on the mall or trying to lease a building on the downtown mall or around the downtown mall. When it's done, you have a finished product that has sex appeal. Next to it, sure. But for 18 to 24 months, you're looking at a very challenging situation here. I'm going to offer a little bit of perspective on the economics. of rents here, and then I'll open up for comments and questions. John Blair, I'm going to go to you. Viewers and listeners, if you have comments, put them in the feed,

and I will relay them live on air. I have four city counselors watching the program as we speak. This is breaking news that the Dewberry is under contract. You're hearing it first in the number one media platform of Charlottesville. The studio apartments, and remember, there's 98 micro-apartments, so viewers and listeners, get your pencils out, your notepads out, and you can kind of figure out the economics with me. 98 and Judah, you do this too.

98 total micro apartments. 98 total. The studio apartments, and remember, of the 98, 56 are studio. So go 98 total, 56 studio, 42 junior one bedrooms. The 56 studio, the estimated rent, monthly is $1,935 a month. The 42 Jr., the estimated rent monthly, is 2,269 a month. So I'm going to do some math on the fly.

Deep throw, I'm going to get to your comments here in a matter of moments. John Blair, goodness gracious, every media outlets watching the show right now. 56 studio, Judah, times $1,935 a month. get you $108,360 in monthly rent roll on the studios. And then let's go to the juniors. The 42 junior one bedrooms have a monthly rent estimation at $2,269. So you're talking $95K a month on those, $95,298 monthly rent roll on the junior studios, J-Dubs. So let's take the, you got those numbers with me, viewers and listeners, write them down.

You can do the math and the economics with us. You got $95,298 on the 42 juniors, and we'll add that to the 108,360. Don't do it on that computer for the studios. And you get a grand total right there of 203,658 a month. month. Let's times that by 12 months, 12 months in a year. And they're talking rent roll off the apartments, this investment group, of $2,443,896 at capacity, at full occupancy. Okay, not bad. been a part of deals as an investor that are way over that. Now, that doesn't include the restaurant.

That doesn't include the incubator space, the co-working space, and any other profit centers associated with the building. That's also not profit. It's important to emphasize for those not in the business. That's not walk away money. How it's being positioned, the deck being positioned, is that this is a way for you to protect your buildings and drive value for your assets that are near the Dewberry Hotel. Let's finish this project.

You'll make some ROI. They're not promising significant ROI on your money, but the trickle over effect to your buildings adjacent or near to the Dewberry is going to be substantial and significant. That's why you should invest. And I think there's a lot of truth to that. I think there's a lot of truth to that. I'll ask you this question before I get to viewer and listener comments. Here's the question.

After years of Charlottesville, after years of all of us, after years of all of us staring at an unfinished hotel on one of the most valuable corners in downtown Charlottesville, a skeleton so dilapidated that rats and rodents call it. at their home and that hobos and homeless defecated, urinated, and shot white china in their veins on a daily basis on and around. Is the $42 million of private investment and the 98 apartments, micro apartments, the final solution? And how much, if anything, should Charlottesville taxpayers contribute to make it happen?

That's a question I have for you, the viewers and listeners. And again, this is under contract and not closed. and we have other breaking news for you on the water cooler of content and conversation. Common House has been sold, and Juan Diego Wade and Michael Payne want to rewrite the zoning code again. God, what is going on here? Studio camera Judah Wickhauer. We'll get some commentary from Judah Wickhauer, if any, and then I'll open it up to viewers and listeners with their comments, with Deep Throat 1 and John Blair 2, with the entire region watching the program right now.

Judah Wickhauer, you have thousands of people clinging to your very next words here. So my friend, deliver something of merit and applause here. What's on your mind? Jack of all which, jack of all trades. I mean, I'm excited about Dewberry. It'll be amazing to finally get some work done on this and eventually, someday, hopefully, have an actual working hotel there. It's not a hotel.

Did you listen to what I said? They're micro apartments. Micro apartments. Goodness gracious. Micro apartments of the 98 variety. We just walked through the economics of those. And as Bob Yarbrough just put in the feed, he's the king of Redfield's his photo on screen.

Bob Yarborough works in the affordable housing space. When putting the economics on paper, you also should factor in that 10% of the apartments, 10% of the apartments are at 60% area median income right there. there. So don't forget to factor those in when doing the estimates. Thank you for breaking that to my attention. Let's go to Deep Throat, number one, in the family. So now we're going to go to the viewers and listeners that are valued and make this program better. Here's Deep Throat, who is without question in the private equity space, the investment space, the speculation space, the deal-making space, a guy that makes this program better and a guy who I look forward to seeing.

He says this, Judah, are you running? So John Dewberry bought that property 14 years ago for $6,250,000. He sells the property at $9 million. The total return annualized is 2.77%. 2.77%. If you take out the cost of taxes, insurance, and maintenance, the return probably is more like 1.5% annualized. That's below inflation.

Dewberry wet the bed on this. Those are my words here. Deep throat calls it a whoopsie. Deep throat further adds this. I wish I had been able to go to the Jefferson School last night. I'm going to get to that with Chris Henry and being attacked. I'll get to that comment on a second's deep throat. He also adds on the Dewberry.

If they can get 98 units with land and shell at 9 million, that's less than 100,000 per unit for land and shell. That is cheap. That will pencil out nicely. and that doesn't even cover, even consider the ground floor retail and restaurant. He then says, $42 million, that seems kind of crazy given the land and shell are done. Also, what is the parking solution for it? Will the city make a parking deal for it?

He says, does the $42 million include the $9 million purchase price? I assume it does. I assume it does too deep throat. Add something to the rent roll for the commercial space, say $3 million total rent roll on $42 million project. Okay, that's not great. A gross cap rate of 7%ish. Yeah, you would need to capture some externality, like being a nearby owner for that to be attractive. But what puzzles me is $42 million after you get land and shell for $9 million.

What kind of fit and finish are they're talking about? They're talking about sex appeal on the fit and finish, deep throat. I got the deck in front of me. I'm not going to show the deck on screen. I thought about doing it, but I'm not going to put the deck on screen. But they're talking about fit and finish. That's fantastic. What he is saying here is your ROI, if you're an investor in this project,

is an ROI that's not going to make you aroused, if you may. It would make me aroused. Okay. But you're basically appealing to folks that have property adjacent and associated that will get the trickle over benefit. That's the appeal. You should be rotating lower thirds on screen headlines for the viewers and listeners that are coming in and watching this program.

If you are watching the show, we do have breaking news that the Dewberry is now under contract for purchase. Daily Progress, Sevo Weekly, and Sevo right now, along with the TV stations that are watching the program, your entire personnel and staff and resources should be allocated to this story right now. Do it now, because this is as significant a story as we're going to find in this community. Let's go to Vanessa Parkhill, who's watching the program from Ehrlichville. I'm all for anything that leads to the cleanup of the Dewberry property and brings vibrant good vibes to the downtown mall. Amen. William McChesney is watching the program on McIntyre Road.

If some of the other downtown mall atmospheric aspects aren't cleaned up, who is going to want to live there and pay that kind of money? And Philip Dow is wondering if they're going to add a parking garage to that project. I don't think a parking garage will be added to the project. that makes things quite costly. If you're just tuning into the program, we have a $9 million contract. It's under contract for the Dewberry Shell. The group is a group of investors

that are now trying to raise capital on this project. They want to get to $15.5 million in equity, the property under contract for $9 million. And they want micro-appartments here with a restaurant on ground level space, 5,000 square feet of office incubator space, a rooftop amenity, 3,300 square feet of lounge, co-working space,

and 1,500 square feet of outdoor terrace space. The city is working in conjunction with this purchasing group by offering tax increment financing that would keep the project's real estate tax at current levels for 10 years, which the developer estimates would have a net present value of exceeding 2,000.

million dollars and the city also says it's willing to work with this ownership group on other incentives i would imagine some of those other incentives have got to be tied to parking who's behind the group george banks ben yorker and kate shagda waters uh banks uh is is is was involved with dairy market and fifth street station as well as atlantis crog street market goodness everyone's watching the program right now I'll close with this. I was at a meeting with community leaders earlier today from 9 to 10.30 a.m., the heaviest of heavy hitters,

and then local governmental leaders as well. If we don't complement a project like this with the proper policy from City Hall and City Council of no camping on the downtown mall, no sheltering on the downtown mall, and no storage of your possessions on the downtown mall, then projects like this won't have the true or most full impact possible. Furthermore, if we don't start improving the perceived safety infrastructure

or the perceived safety strategies in downtown Charlottesville, like a much more robust camera system on the downtown mall where the police can utilize artificial intelligence and the police can utilize strategically positioned, cameras on and off the downtown mall to track the whereabouts or the coming and goings or the escape routes and the getaway measures of alleged criminals, then development projects like this, which is being monikered the Halpern, the apartment conversion, are not going to have their truest impact, their most significant impact possible.

It's a very clear multi-prong attack that needs to return that is going to return the, that is going to return the eight blocks on the downtown mall back to where it was before COVID. Step one is this. City Council get some minerals and a spine and approve a policy and an ordinance that disallows camping and the storage of possessions on the mall. The only place in Charlottesville City where you can really do that legally right now is the downtown mall. Parks you can't do it on because they have a timestamp, no trespassing after 11 p.m.,

which the police can use. to leverage trespassing enforcement laws. The mall does not have that. It's a 24-7-365 right away. That's why people can camp here. Counsel, get some balls. Pass the policy, number one. Number two, we get out of this scary, fear-based world we live in

about cameras and technology, and the fact that cameras and technology can be hacked by bad people with nefarious intentions. That's bullshit. There's cameras everywhere. Get cameras up and down this downtown mall and give Mike Conscious and the police department access to them. So when two weeks ago, 13 days ago, 10 days ago, a 19-year-old and 18-year-old starts shooting a gun on the downtown mall at 1.30 in the morning, literally shooting a 9 millimeter in the air, spraying bullets, hitting buildings and businesses, thank God no people were hurt.

A camera system can immediately track where that human being goes. Okay, that's the second approach. And then the third approach is council needs to look at projects like this in downtown Charlottesville from an economic standpoint of offering not just the tax relief, but offering parking and any other economic incentives for these developers to take a horrible skeleton and realize it into something special. It's as clear as day it when it needs to happen. I got more breaking news for you.

In fact, this story is loaded with breaking news as everyone in this community is watching the show. I want to give attention to John Vermillion and Andrew Vermillion of Virginia vacuum company, of Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company, and of course of Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. We've been working alongside this family business, our firm and our business. consultancy for two years now we've helped them develop this Virginia vacuum company brand and this Charlottesville swimming pool company brand as we label and brand and identify the service verticals the Charlottesville Sanitary Supply has provided customers for 63 years let's label them this brand them

let's bring them to market and let's attract attention to them and goodness gracious why shouldn't we it's family owned it's three generations strong they're the authorized meal of vacuum dealer they have a mechanic on site they know swimming pools like the Pope knows Holy Water. We spend our money there. They're badass dudes. They are badass dudes, the Vermilions. Support them. Support local. Free in market delivery by the Vermillion family at Charlesville Sanitary Supply. The next headline has got to be Common House, right? You put in lower thirds on screen, Judah? Yep.

Common House this week, mere days ago, closed. $2,150,000, Common House, the building. sold for. The LLC is the entity that purchased common house is 206 West Market LLC. Most people look at the GIS and they would have just been like, oh, look at that, there's a deal there. That's not what we do here. We talk to people. We do deals. We understood there was serious attention for Common House. And as soon as it closed, we heard the rumblings and grumblings. We were following the flow for weeks now. As soon as it closed and we gave it a chance for the ink to dry, we're talking about it on the show.

$2,150,000. The ownership group with Common House led by someone that you need to know. You need to know his name, Leo Nolan. And Leo Nolan and a couple of partners are purchasing

Common House. They have purchased Common House to building. They have made the purchase. And their plan is to put their business headquarters there. They're their PA, PE guys, private equity guys, they invest in businesses. They're going to put their business headquarters there.

They're going to lease some of the space for executive office space, for incubator space, office rentals of the smaller variety. And they're going to take the restaurant space that's already there, and they're going to lease it to a restaurant, and they have a restaurant group

already looking at the space because it's decked out. It's beautiful. I mean, goodness gracious, common house was running a restaurant and a bar in full-service dining before the house of cards collapsed. And goodness gracious, that house of cards at one time was an extremely sturdy business. I mean, when it was just Common House, when it was founded by Derek Sieg and his friends here on Market Street, common house was all the rage, dude.

It was like the champagne taste of a private club. It was like Charlottesville's version of Soho House, if you may. It might be a stretch. but that's what they were going for. They had membership. They had events. They had engagement. They had breakfast.

They had coffee, lunch, dinner, happy hour scene, bar scene. They had entrepreneurs. They had executives. They had PE. They had private equity. They had angel investors. They had hedge funds. They had financiers.

They had everybody who was anybody in this community in and out of that building. Fantastically designed, fantastically laid out. Champagne taste with the. the decoration and the decor. It was fucking awesome, man. It was really, really awesome. Excuse my language, but it was awesome. And then, like, a lot of folks in the business space,

they got ahead of their skis. And when they got ahead of their skis, they said, oh, we can do this in Richmond. We can do this in Tennessee. And we can turn this into a franchise. We can turn this private club model into a scalable company. A scalable company.

The challenge when, taking a private club and turning it into a scalable company is you cannot replicate or duplicate the Genesequa that is the first location where the owners and the founders are raising their families and kids and intimately know. You can find other markets where you think this will appeal and you can find personnel and humans to help you scale and you can secure lease arrangements and deals in Tennessee and Richmond, but it's not going to have the same human connection and intimacy as the first location had.

And eventually you get ahead of your skis, over your skis, and eventually the House of Cards starts showing its leaks. It's like that foundation where you know it leaks at your house on a heavy rain, every rain, and you're hoping and praying

that it doesn't rear its ugly head on that Durancho. Is it Dorentio? Dorecho, Dorecho. Dorecho. That's more wind, though. That rainstorm that day. And unfortunately, the war started presenting themselves, and the House of Cards collapsed.

And I've been told there's a number of people that are still pursuing security deposit money from common houses. Charlottesville, Richmond, and Tennessee. Small claims courts, efforts in small claims courts are underway. And the business that was Common House had to quickly, shed, I guess it's only asset that it had left, which was the real estate. And Tollheimer, and I'll give some love to Johnny Pritzloff on this deal here, they found a buyer. And it's crazy to think that a building of this magnificence, decadence, beauty, potential upside opportunity traded for $2,150,000.

$2,150,000. If you were to recreate common house from scratch, not a chance in hell you could recreate that in scratch for $2,150,000. And it just traded with Leo Nolan. leading the charge for $2,150,000. The buyer's got a steal. I got to steal. Now those buyers, and I'm sure Leo Nolan knows this,

are gonna have, and I hope Leo you're watching the program here in your ownership group, you're about to have 12 to 36 months of misery in front of you as the artful lodger space, that shopping center shopping center where the artful lodger in the livery stable is reimagined into a hotel is the future of browns been determined viewers and listeners lock and safe that are watching the program did browns i mean there's there's momentum at browns okay the buildings that are the uh the theater what's the theater there as i'm driving down market street i drive down there every morning

you mean vinegar hill is that the theater is that what it's called there the studio that's right there the Browns. Yeah, I mean, that was, that was the old Vinegar Hill Theater. Where they have kids doing movie projects, summer camp there. That theater and the common house space are going to have jackhammers and the worst kind of

noise for, call it the next 36 months might be a stretch, but the next 36 months. If you navigate that intrusion, that quality of life impact for 36 months, then that $2,150,000 deal on your purchase of the building is a damn good one.

It's a damn good one. I want to give some attention right now, viewers and listeners, to Stanley Martin Holmes, a partner of the show. I owe the Stanley Martin team a response to an email, and I'll do that after the show. But Stanley Martin Holmes is a partner of the show. They've built six, a lot of people don't know this, 600 homes in the last 24 months in Charlottesville,

Almarrow, and across central Virginia. Stanley Martin Holmes is bringing hundreds of new homes to market, in the very near future, with Green County leading the way. Roughly 80 homes outside Glenmore at Breezy Hill, nearly 50 homes to market in the Fry Springs neighborhood. Stanley Martin Holmes is your most prolific developer, your most prolific home builder, and they're doing construction, the honest way,

the straightforward way, the innovative way, the communicative way, the technology-backed way. Oftentimes offering incentives that other builders, and clients and other people that are building homes cannot find elsewhere. Stanley Martin Holmes. So if you're just watching the program, I broke news for you with everyone who's anyone watching the show. The Dewberry Hotel is under contract.

If you're just watching the program, it's under contract for $9 million, and the idea is to create 98 micro-apportments there, and the ownership group has got an equity raise underway at $15.5 million with philanthropic. appeal on that equity raise. Pass the hat, help us raise 15.5 million. Our goal is the total project is going to cost us $42 million. And if you help us do that, your adjacent property values will uptick.

I actually buy that. Now, I got a third piece of breaking news that I want to relay to the viewers and listeners. This is just absolutely baffling to me. Last night at the Jefferson School, as you're putting lower thirds on screen, and I can weave you into this conversation if you'd like.

You don't have to be. But last night, the Jefferson School, Chris Henry, who's the president of Stony Point Development, the sudden law of Paul Manning. Paul Manning is the guy from the Paul and Diane Manning Biotechnology Institute. He donated $100 million. He's the second most significant donor of money to the University of Virginia. Jeffrey Woodruff, friend of the program, fantastic squash player, is number one. I think he's about 180 million, Jeffrey Woodruff. Paul Manning's $100 million in change. So Paul's in the two slot. If you did the Mount Rushmore of the University of Virginia, the first head on the Mount Rushmore, is that a bus?

Would I say that's a bus on Mount Rushmore? Bust. Is it a bust? Like the ladies you like busty? I mean, it's just the same word. It doesn't mean the-but-not-bust-bust. Yeah. Okay.

So the bust on Mount Rushmore would be Thomas Jefferson, one. Jeffrey Woodruff, two. Maybe Paul Manning in the three-slot. Let me throw a John Castine in there, a Tony Bennett in there, a McIntyre in there, right? But Paul, Paul Manning's there. Paul Manning's there. Paul's the money behind Stony Point. They did dairy market, repositioned the Monticello Dairy into a food hall, into an office space, office building, and into apartments, Dairy Central.

Dairy Central, Dairy Market. Now they finally want to do phase three. And goodness gracious. Chris Henry, I think you're doing a fantastic job here. They want to tear down two crappy buildings. They don't want to displace anybody. We're not displacing people. They want to tear down two pieces of crap buildings.

One of them a laundromat and take an empty parking lot. And they want to build apartments. I also don't think the thing. 280-some apartments. Go ahead. I also don't think it's going to be towering. so high that... It's three five-story buildings. It's not towering high

at all. Three-five-story buildings. It's not going to cast a massive shadow over a, you know, a neighborhood that doesn't want them there. It's three five-story buildings. One of those five-story buildings is

the plan is a 133-key hotel. 133-room hotel. Tenth and page neighborhood association, rallied against this project last night at the Jefferson School as if Chris Henry was passing the bubonic plague across Charlottesville, as if Chris Henry was an anti-vaxxer during COVID, just absolute lunacy, this 10th and Page Neighborhood Association.

Many of the 10th and Page Neighborhood Association last night were the same people, and many of the 10th and Page Neighborhood Association is watching the program as we see. speak. And I'm calling you out on your hypocrisy here, 10th and Page Neighborhood Association. Many of the 10th and Page Neighborhood Association were the same men and women that were bullying City Council a handful of years ago for a zoning code rewrite that said the previous zoning code in the city of Charlottesville, where 52, 53% of housing stock in the city was

single-family detached housing, was rooted in white urban renewal. mission statements. And they said, we need a zoning rewrite a handful of years ago because the current zoning code is rooted in single family detached homes only, which is the furthest thing from housing stock racial diversity. So they use these bullying tactics, these activist tactics, and many of them are, I see them watching the program right now, you know, where unfortunately the puppets they were. they were the puppets of the Gilliken gang and Livable Seaville and Stephen Johnson and Matthew Gilliken.

They used the activist community, the financially marginalized community, as essentially their puppets to push a zoning rewrite through. I told you throughout this entire process, don't listen to the Gilliken gang. You are being used by the Gillican gang on this zoning rewrite because the neighborhoods that will be target first are the black and brown neighborhoods where the dirt is cheap, that are centrally located and walkable to anything and everything in the city. I mean, think about it. Before the zoning rewrite, the land that was the cheapest was Fifeville,

10th and Page, Star Hill, and Rose Hill, all black and brown historic neighborhoods. All had a common denominator. What was the common denominator? I'm not sure. Centurally located walkable for a live work play to the downtown mall, the University of Virginia, and the hospital system.

I said, if you do this, you're centrally located cheap dirt, Rose Hill, Fifeville, 10th and Page, Star Hill, will be targeted. And goodness gracious. Now we got the mark in Fifeville, right in the heart of Fifeville behind a historically black church that got approved. Activist community lost that fight. We got Wooder doing stuff in the Rose Hill neighborhood. We got Chris trying to reincarnate his project, the Phase 3 at Dairy Market Dairy Central. This is exactly what we told you was going to happen. And now the activist community realizes they were hoodwinked.

They were tricked by the Gillican gang. I don't even think, I think that's giving the Gillican gang. Oh, the Gillican gang, the Gillican gang had an idea that this was going to happen. So what was the goal then? Their goal is housing stock no matter what. what. And their goal is housing stock no matter what, because if you dramatically increase the supply, you might be able to suppress rental price. You might be able to suppress acquisition price. What they never anticipated was the University of Virginia responding by admitting more students

than ever before, garnering more applications than ever before. They never anticipated the Paul Manning Biotechnology Institute being birthed with a $100 million donation from Paul Manning. They never anticipated a biotechnology beltway with AstraZeneca, Merck, and Eli, Lilly, all within spitting distance of Almore County in Charlottesville, a beltway that literally goes from Rockingham County through Almore County to Guchland County connecting Merck, Astrozenica, and Eli Lilly. They never anticipated nine figures plus from Jefferson. Woodruff with the data science school. They never anticipated COVID and hybrid and remote where it drove wealthy people from major metropolitan areas to Charlottesville to wax nostalgic of their four years

at a university and college where they're like, God, my time in UVA was awesome. Let me take my half a million dollar salary to Charlottes and work in my tidy whiteys and my BVDs and my Victoria Secret like Judah does when he's at his house from an ISP in my basement while I'm I earned my $600,000 salary in Charlottesville, buying a home that's 60% less than the home that I have in Boston or Northern Virginia or McLean or Arlington. They never anticipated this stuff was going to happen. No one really anticipated the impacts of the pandemic. Okay?

Of course. And now what's happened is Michael Payton and Juan Diego Wade as you're rotating lower thirds on screen are like, Houston, we got a problem. Lucy, we got a problem. Had you seen Juan Wade saying that? And last night at the meeting, on the record, Juan Wade and Michael Payne said, we need to rewrite the zoning code. We need a zoning text amendment.

And we now need to protect the historically marginalized communities. I'm going to call straight up BS on Michael Payne and Juan Wade. I'm going to say, you can't change the rules in the middle of the game. When you just changed the rules in 2023, they changed the rules dramatically. dramatically in 2023, making dirt more opportunistic and more developable and having more upside from a construction standpoint.

We told them not to do it because it was going to impact the financially marginalized and drive gentrification momentum like this community has not seen since the raising of vinegar hill. We told them not to do it. They didn't listen. They chose to listen to a speech therapist and a UVA professor instead of the people that actually do real estate and, and equity raising and deal flow for a living.

Okay? Good job, City Hall, listening to the speech therapist and the UVA professor instead of the people that do deal brokering and equity raising and real estate for a living. Good job. Now you've realized you are in a serious problem. And after yesterday's Jefferson School meeting,

they, Juan Wade and Mike Payne said, we need to change the zoning code and need a zoning text amendment that's protecting our historically marginalized communities, Fifeville Rose Hill, 10th and Page, and Star Hill. Well, listen to this one way. If you do a zoning text amendment where you protect Fifeville, Rose Hill, 10th of page, and Star Hill,

you don't have any more developed land. You're not going to build 288 apartments in the Meadowbrook neighborhood on Rugby Road, in Belmont, in north downtown, on Greenbrier in the Greenbrier neighborhood. It's too expensive. You can't assemble. There's not enough.

It doesn't pencil out. Crazy. And if you're Chris Henry, and Chris Henry, I'm going to go to bat for you yet again. I'm going to go to bat for you here again, Chris Henry, because I think you're doing good things for this community.

The dude is, all Stony Point is trying to do is this. Tear down two crappy buildings. and use an empty parking lot to build, what, 288 apartments, 277 new apartments, 277 apartments, 133 room hotel and a parking deck. He's even preserving the laundromat. I said it yesterday.

I'll preserve this laundromat that is like the holy water. That's as if, what's with the Bible where they're walking to water, searching for the water, desperately needing the water? Or it's in the Bible where they're trying to find Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and they're following in the sky? What are they following in the sky? The star. The star of David?

Yeah, you could call it that. Okay. Star of Day. 10th and page, this laundromat's like the effing star of David here. Following them, we need the laundry. He's giving you a laundromat. He's literally creating a laundromat for you. And he's explaining to the 10th and page neighborhood that 277 apartments will actually alleviate the burden on you. Because it's going to create more housing stock for the center of the city,

more housing stock that tenants, that potential renters will pursue this new stock as opposed to your neighborhood. And it spreads out the tax burden and the tax base across additional housing stock in the city, potentially alleviating the burden for gentrified or potentially gentrified residents in a jurisdiction that has spent, spend, spend, spend, spend with its budget. But they don't get it. They don't understand it. They don't get it.

And I'm going to say this right now. Chris Henry spent $10,000 on the application alone. That's peanuts for him and his company. 10,000 on the application alone. Who knows how much they've spent on the plans, the renderings, the structural engineers, the architects, the Justin Shims of the world, the community meetings, the opportunity costs of time and money on this. And Chris, you watch and listen to the show.

This is what I would say. Go forward with the project. You legally and by the letter of zoning are able to do this. you cannot buck to the pressure of 80 or 100 people that were at the Jefferson School yesterday. It's time to big boy pants and go forward with this because changing the rules in the middle of the game like Wade and Pain and the activist community want them to do

is the biggest pile of stinking BS that I've ever seen in my entire life. And if we don't stand up, Chris, if we don't stand up for bullies or stand up against bullies or buck up two bullies, then the bully is going to continue bullying. Once the bully, there was a guy, there was one time.

So my junior year in high school. I was always never the biggest guy. Always the quickest-witted guy and always very sharp with my tongue. And I remember junior year in high school,

school, I was on the track team, ran the mile and two mile. And on track meet days, we got to wear our red A6, our red A6 jumpsuit. We had a zip-up jacket and red pants, almost like MC Hammer puffy pants. Not P. Diddy. Ooh, he's creepy. I'm talking MC Hammer puffy pants, and we had our track shoes on and all the track team was wearing it. I remember I was in home room that year, that day. And in home room, somebody walks in, I'm not going to say who. and he makes a comment about the track team suit. He's like, did you get a bowl of soup with that jumpsuit, Jerry? And I immediately responded before anyone could react.

Tom, you're still in remedial math? You're still a grade level behind everybody in our class in math? Have you figured out arithmetic yet? Set it out loud. Everybody heard it. He froze in his pants, literally froze, turned ghost white, walked out the room. Learned a lesson. and right there. He did. There's different kinds of bullying, and there's different kinds of responses.

And the way you handle and manage a bully is by bucking up right back to them. Because when it's all said and done, they don't want to play. And that's what Chris needs to do in Stony Point. And Paul, is like, you guys already stood down in that first meeting a few years ago. at the church in 10th and page. And you look scared there. And that frankly gave Ziana Bryant a lot of momentum. That amplified the

Ziana Bryant brand tremendously when she was able to lead a charge with her neighborhood and say, you're not going to build here and you stopped. Zana Bryant last night, the Charlottesville School Board member, took over that meeting. Yeah, that's what I read.

Literally took the meeting over. and Chris and Stony Point and Paul Manning, if you guys don't buck up to this bully, all you're doing is making the bully stronger. And what you're doing is right and legal and by the letter of the law. Comments, put them in the feed, I'll relay them live on air. I got nine minutes here before real estate meeting in the office. Carol Thorpe's photo on screen. Jerry, I've said it before and I'll say it again. city council cannot run a successful lemonade stand. William McChesney says if you did a deep dive

on speculative property purchases in the last three years, you should look at the Alderman Road neighborhood. And he says there's potential development surprises that are yet to come. Patricia Napoleon, her photo on screen, she asks, is the existing shell with the Dewberry Hotel Sound for Construction? Yes, it is. In fact, the purchasing group is valuing that shell let me check my notes at $5 million of enhanced value. Let me make sure I'm right. The 90,000 square foot cast in place structure represents at least $5 million of completed improvements.

Is what the purchasing group is anticipating there, or is projecting there. All right, print, radio, and television that's watching the program. You should right now be working on the story about the Dewberry Hotel being under contract. I expect to see that in the next 24 hours in print radio and television. DeBerry Hotel under contract. Put your recorders next to our show, and that's the basis for your reporting.

I expect print radio and television for you to report on the sale of common house, and I expect print radio and television for you guys to talk about Chris Henry taking verbal arrows from the 10th and page neighborhood, and now Stony Point and Chris Henry going to man up to Ziana Bryant in the 10th of Page neighborhood and move forward with Dairy Market, Dairy Central. Central Phase 3. Deep throat. Dairy Market Phase 3 is the perfect development and the sense of not displacing anyone being on a transit corridor and being close to jobs in downtown. It's perfect. It's perfect. Then he throws shade at the activist communities and their puppet masters for probably just angling for some kind of

shakedown money. All right. That's one of the most impactful shows we've done here at the I Love Seville Network. This is the number one media platform in Charlottesville in Central Virginia. It's presented thanks to partners like Sir Speedy Central Virginia and Conan Owen. I would love to see Conan Owen and Sirius, Central Virginia, host their own talk show on our network, a business Q&A talk show where Conan is interviewing business owners in this community. Conan, let's make that happen. We're in talks to do that. I think we should make that happen, Conan.

I'd like to close that deal this week. I also want to highlight our brokerage, Charlottesville business brokers. Charlottesville business brokers. Dude, the deal flow with our firm is off the chain right now. And I'm grateful and I'm humbled and I'm saying thank you. We love working with the folks out there. We love it. If you need commercial space, brokerage help, you know, business brokerage help, you name it.

My DMs and text messages are open. This is the number one media outlet in Charlottesville. He's Judah Wickhauer. My name is Jerry Miller.