The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - CVille's Quirk Hotel Sells For $24M To NYC Firm; 80 Hotel Rooms, $300K Per Room, 91 Employees

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: CVille’s Quirk Hotel Sells For $24M To NYC Firm 80 Hotel Rooms, $300K Per Room, 91 Employees How Does The Quirk Hotel Sale Impact CVille? PVCC Responds To Louisa Denying Funding Albemarle Personal Property Taxes Will Increase Albemarle Chair Jim Andrews Quote On Taxes Monticello Motors For Sale: $125K Asking Price UVA Honor Code: AI Detector Ban + Cheating 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 and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Thursday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show, our studio on Market Street in downtown Charlottesville. Today's show is loaded with local content, content that we hope will educate, entertain, and enlighten you on your lunch hour or if you are enjoying this podcast at your leisure outside of its daily 1230 to 130 slot. A lot we're going to cover on the program, including a $24 million transaction, a block and a half, let's be realistic, what, three blocks from us, Judah? Four blocks from us, the Cork Hotel. We'll talk about this from how does it impact the city of Charlottesville. We'll give you the

details of the transaction. A New York City hospitality group has paid $24 million for the second iteration of the Cork Hotel, a hotel that was birthed by the U-Crops family and some investors. The U-Crops family, of course, from Richmond. They come to Charlottesville and they open a hotel at, frankly, the worst time maybe in American history, right at the start of the pandemic, in March of 2020. This hotel has been quite costly for the Ucrops family and its investors. And on Monday, this past Monday, this investor group, 31 of them have divested ownership of an 80-room boutique hotel. I'll unpack that for you today. I also want to talk on today's program about Jim Andrews, the chairman of the Alamaro County Board of Supervisors. He gave a quote to local media. His quote, I find out of touch. Mr. Andrews, I have tremendous respect for you. You're

the chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Alamaro County, Samuel Miller District. You've come on this network in months past. Anybody who's willing to put their neck on the line and local government, props, kudos for trying to do what's best for this community. We don't have to see eye to eye, and I can still respect you as a person. Almaral County's Board of Supervisors,

they agreed to raise the personal property tax rate last night. Ned Galloway alluded to this when he was on the show yesterday, the Albemarle County supervisor. When he was literally across the street from me, I said, well, this tax rate is going to increase. And lo and behold, it did. Then Mr. Andrews talks to local media. I'll relay the quote that he gave media, which I think is a microcosm of local government perhaps being out of touch with current economic conditions that we are all facing right now. We'll talk Piedmont Virginia Community College. Piedmont, ladies and gentlemen, has issued a statement to the Louisa County Board of Supervisors. And this statement says,

look, we need the funding from you, Louisa County, the funding that you are holding hostage because of this movie that we allowed to air on campus when it came to Palestine and all the warfare that's going on in the Middle East. Louisa told Piedmont, we're not going to give you this money, this taxpayer dollars, until we get a statement from you of what you are doing to prevent anti-Semitism on your campus. Now Piedmont's issued a statement. Is it enough to

get the money from Louisa, the funding, back on track? That story on today's show. We got a business that's for sale. We are in the business brokerage space. That division, Charlottesville Business Brokers, if you can get that logo on screen, Charlottesville Business Brokers online at charlottesvillebusinessbrokers.com. The business is Monticello Motors. It has traded hands a couple of times. We'll give you the nitty-gritty of this opportunity on this program as well. And we'll talk UVA from an honor code standpoint. The Honor Code Committee at the University of Virginia, it's a group of students, is considering seriously banning AI detectors as evidence for cheating. What does that mean? Well, if a student uses chat GBT or artificial intelligence to write a paper and then submit it, if a professor has a detector of any kind

that says, hey, not so fast, my friend, this was not your writing, they have a detector that catches AI writing stuff for students, that kind of evidence may not be usable when it comes to an honor code violation. I really want to unpack that now. The University of Virginia that I remember from 2000 to 2004 is a University of Virginia that I don't recognize often anymore. And the honor code is a perfect example of that. It is being watered down, the honor code, left and right at UVA. Left and right. So much to cover on today's program we're live wherever you get your social media content your podcasting content we're less than two miles from scott stadium the john paul jones arena and the rotunda our studio on market street is a hop skip and a jump from the charlottesville police department one block from

the courthouses of almar on the city of charlottesville and right off the downtown mall ladies and gentlemen smack dab in the middle of a market we call Central Virginia. 300,000 people strong. This market, a market we love dearly. We'll give some love to Otto Turkish Street Food, a restaurant on Water Street that you have to try. Lunch, dinner, seven days a week, Otto Turkish Street Food. It's fresh. It's made daily.

It's priced reasonably. It's the type of cuisine where you're going to try it once and you're going to keep coming back. Auto Turkish street food. These boys know what's up, ladies and gentlemen. Let's welcome Judah Witkow. We're on a two-shot. And let's get the first lower third on screen if you could, please, sir. The Cork Hotel, Monday, a few days ago, a $24 million transaction. The buyer of the Cork Hotel, a firm out of the Big Apple, New York City,

Blue Suede Hospitality Group, a very young firm, only two years old. This firm, Blue Suede Hospitality Group, drops $24 million for an 80-room hotel in downtown Charlottesville. The buyer of this hotel has other properties, four of them to be exact, two in Miami, one in Memphis, Tennessee, and one in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They penetrate the Charlottesville market with the purchase of Quirk on West Main Street, basically downtown Charlottesville, a tony, a chic, an upscale, a sexy hotel property. It's got a rooftop bar with views that are to die for. There's only one spot in the city of Charlottesville that can compete with the rooftop views of the Quirk Hotel, and that's the rooftop bar at the Graduate Hotel

on the UVA corner. And folks, Quirks are better than the Graduates. Now, let's break down this deal. $24 million. Let's try to put this in perspective. Well, some basic math. If there's 80 rooms, and we know rooms are how

hotels make their money, then that is $300,000 per room. Think about that. 80 rooms in the hotel, $24 million transaction, $300,000 per room. The reality of the hotel business, the restaurant and the bar scene associated with these hotels, the art gallery associated with this hotel, these points of sale hemorrhage money. That whiskey jar, that whiskey bar next to the Cork Hotel, that hemorrhages money.

The rooftop bar hemorrhages money. The gallery hemorrhages money. The rooftop bar hemorrhages money. The gallery hemorrhages money. These restaurants and bars and other points of sales like gift shops that are attached to hotels, sexy ones, they are utilized as pomp and circumstance, window dressing, or brand appeal. They are not true revenue generators for the property.

How they make their money is the booking of rooms, and they have 80 to book here. The buyer is a firm that is a tech company disguised as a hotelier. And this tech company, Blue Suede Hospitality Group, is going to come to Cork, Charlottesville, and they're going to implement very quickly advanced technology. That technology is going to have contactless interactions. It's going to have keypads on doors that are not tied to keys at all. It's going to be codes or swipes doors that are not tied to keys at all. It's going to be codes or swipes of some kind to get in the doors. And they're very quickly going to utilize their technology to try to trim the staff overhead at Quirk Charlottesville.

Ninety-one employees on the roster for this particular location in Charlottesville. Ninety-one. location in Charlottesville, 91. And if you can cut that 91, that staff of 91 people down, because you start utilizing advanced technology to manage your property, then you start fattening and improving profit margins. The new owner of this hotel has already indicated that the hotel will be rebranded. It's not going to be Quirk anymore. Interesting wrinkle on that. The Ucrops family who launched the Quirk brand in Richmond, they have a hotel in Richmond. They have art galleries in their hotels. As part of this transaction,

the U-Crops family insisted that the Quirk art gallery in the Charlottesville location stay the same or transition with the purchase. The rebranding, the name change is going to happen with the hotel,

but the Quirk art gallery is going to stay there. I want to give some props to two extremely talented commercial brokers of Talheimer, Johnny Pritzloff and Jenny Stoner. They represented blue suede hospitality in this transaction. Stoner and Pritzloff are creme de la creme when it comes to commercial in this market. Nice little payday for Pritzloff and Stoner, certainly there. I'm very curious to see the elevated nature of this brand, what comes to market. I would expect that this Manhattan hospitality group is going to try to further fatten margins by raising room prices even more, and the Quirk prices are not cheap by any means.

And for them to do that, it's not just going to be a technology play. They're going to have to bring true value proposition to get room rates even higher. The hospitality, the management group, here's a story for you. The management group that runs Quark Charlottesville, it's called Retro Hospitality. So let me unpack this for you.

The U-Crops family opened this hotel in the beginning of COVID. And when they opened this hotel in the beginning of COVID. And when they opened this hotel in the beginning of COVID. They spent a boatload of money. Ladies and gentlemen. And I'll put in perspective the money. $3,750,000 in 2017 to purchase the property. $12 million. An investor capital raise, which included the purchase to build out the property. Another $5.3 million raised in 2018. When they opened in March of 2020, they had to

immediately close for three months because of the pandemic. Worst time to open in American history. They then had to go back to their investors and ask for another $500,000. Do we think that this investor group of 31 people is going to make any money here with the $24 million sale? I do not. I think in fact they're probably taking a bath. But sometimes you cut your losses and you save yourself the opportunity costs of stress, mental anguish, and the space of thinking in between your ears which allows you to go on to another project and recoup that money. Quirk, the U-Crops family and the Quirk investor group in Charlottesville

started with a Hyatt management team. So for the first two years of running this hotel in Charlottesville, they used Hyatt to manage their hotel. They owned it, but they outsourced the management. After two years, they said, peace out, sayonara to Hyatt, and they brought in Retro Hospitality. Retro Hospitality was the same hospitality group that had the dairy market contract for a period of time during COVID. In fact, the head of Retro Hospitality, his name is Paul Cooper.

He's come on this network. Smart guy, runs Retro Hospitality. His name is Paul Cooper. He's come on this network. Smart guy. Runs Retro Hospitality. This hospitality group, Retro Hospitality group, is based out of Richmond and they're managing the day-to-day operations of the Cork Richmond brand. Retro Hospitality is losing the contract for Cork Charlottesville in June of this year. That could be another built-in efficiency to fatten margins for the Manhattan purchaser. So I see three potential options here. The management of the hotel, whether they bring it in-house or they choose another group where they can improve their margin, one.

Two, the technology play, which what they're really good at, which is going to keep them from having to staff 91 people on the roster. People are going to lose their jobs here, folks. And three, I think they're going to improve the brand or try to prove the brand, try to improve the customer experience, add ValProp to the customer experience to charge more per night at the rooms. 80 rooms. It's a very unique time to open a hotel. There is another development company called Heirloom Development that has currently plans in play for an apartment tower next to the Omni Hotel. How many apartments was it? We talked about it last week.

Was it 160? Can you look at some previous PTI headlines, Judah, and give me that number? Yeah. Thank you very much. And this heirloom development group, an out-of-market developer, they're the folks that developed the building by Blue Moon Diner. They built, they reimagined Blue Moon Diner and they built that apartment,

those apartments above Blue Moon Diner. They are pivoting their plans for that apartment tower next to the Omni Hotel and are considering building a hotel themselves. In fact, it's gotten so down the road that it's in front of government and local officials in City Hall right now. So here you have a $24 million purchase from a Manhattan hotelier who's basically betting my improved technology, perhaps a different kind of management team, and improving the brand through some

marketing and some improved customer experiences, I'm going to raise the rates of the rooms. Those three strategies, maybe we're going to make our money back. They're doing it at the exact same time heirloom development is talking about bringing a hotel

to market. If you have a thumbs up on those numbers, that would be huge for me. Still looking. Thank you. One other interesting wrinkle here. Paul Cooper of Retro Hospitality, he offered very straightforward commentary of the hotel business in Charlottesville.

He said this. With Quark Charlottesville. He said this, with Quark Charlottesville, there were 31 investors, 31 investors in this hotel, along with the U-Crops family. Way too many cooks or chefs in the kitchen. When you have 31 people on a deal, that sounds like a cluster duck,

quack, quack, quack. He also said that the Charlottesville hotel market, this is a hotel management guy. He said the Charlottesville hotel market has not recovered. He said Quark Richmond has maintained a 76% occupancy rate so far. He said in Charlottesville, that number is significantly lower. He also said the Charlottesville location required more staff, 91 people, to cork Richmond's 85 people. So he's saying that Richmond has a better occupancy rate and less staff

when compared to Charlottesville. He said Charlottesville's market is so tied to the University of Virginia and people are not responding to UVA events post-COVID like they did prior to COVID. Dude, that makes very good sense. Have you seen football games these days at Scott Stadium? I mean, you get 40,000 people at Scott Stadium, it's calls for celebration.

The reality is you're in your mid-20s on most outings. When you don't have a full Scott Stadium, six or seven games a year, that's going to impact this hotel business. Cooper basically says the Charlottesville hotel market is softened since COVID. Two-shot Judah Wickhauer has got some numbers for us. Jump in the mix, J-Dubs. market is softened since COVID. Two-shot Judah Wickhauer has got some numbers for us.

Jump in the mix, J-Dubs. The original plan was a 134 apartment block, which has since changed to what may be a six-story building with 160 rooms. So I was right on the 160 apartments, and now they're pivoting from 160 apartments next to the Omni Hotel to... No, 134 apartments. 134 apartments to how many hotels? How many rooms in that hotel? 160? Yeah.

There you go. So you've got a potential brand. Now, it's going to take some time for this hotel to come into market, it's not going to be overnight but this guy, this New York City firm spends 24 million dollars and they're buying into a market where another boutique hotel could be coming

online in the next couple years that has 2x their room availability that will be newer that will be newer. That will be arguably in a better position on the downtown mall. Arguably. Well, it's actually on the downtown mall. That's what I'm saying. Where Cork is not.

Cork is across from the ABC store on West Main Street. Anybody been to the ABC store on West Main Street? I have. Have you? Could be a little dicey. Could be a little dicey from time to time.

Mike Signer tried to shut down this ABC store. I'm not trying to throw shade on the ABC store. I love the ABC store. Love the ABC store. Signer tried to shut it down when he was the head of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association, the former mayor of Charlottesville. The impact that this is going to have on Charlottesville before we go to the next headline.

Here it is in a nutshell. People are going to lose their jobs here. Charlottesville's hotel room rates are going to go up. These rates are based on competitive pricing. This guy's going to have to raise his rates, this blue suede hospitality out of Manhattan, to start recouping some of the money he put into this purchase. The technology play is not just restaurants.

We've talked on this program as you're rotating lower thirds on screen. The top, this is now on the third lower third you should have on. Please, sir. The kiosk and the online ordering and the third-party delivery for restaurants and the order through your app on your phone,

it's not just food and beverage anymore. Technology across the board is replacing what I call frontline workers at an aggressive clip. And I'm all for every man and every woman in the world maximizing their earning potential and pursuing as much earning and money as possible to sustain their livelihood. But as frontline workers and as any staff gets aggressive for what their compensation is, aggressive for what they want to make every year. Their employers, their owners, their upper management, their shareholders, their board of directors, whatever you want to call these folks, are going to figure out ways to trim that fat. You want $20 an hour employees at McDonald's in

California or $25 an hour burger flippers at Wendy's in Los Angeles, you're going to get $27 Big Mac meals. I went to Chick-fil-A on Sunday. I got a 10-pack. My wife was out of town for a bridal shower in Connecticut. It was me and the two boys. Went to Chick-fil-A on Saturday. We got a 10-pack chicken mini with a hash brown and an orange juice. How much do you think the 10-pack chicken mini with a hash brown and orange juice at Chick-fil-A was?

I have no idea what minis are. Are they chicken nuggets? 10-pack chicken mini. That doesn't mean... Mini chicken sandwiches. I have no idea what minis are. Are they chicken nuggets? Ten-pack chicken mini. That doesn't mean... Mini chicken sandwiches. Okay. Ten of them. Sliders?

Yeah, sliders is a great description. Are they like one bite? Well, my 17-month-old has really tiny hands and a small mouth, so it takes him about six bites. Our six-year-old has larger hands and a bigger mouth, so it takes them two bites. Yours truly can do it in one, maybe one and a half. How much do you think a 10-pack

chicken mini, OJ and Hash Brown cost us? I'm going to say $14. $18. $18. She said it was like $17.90 something. I go, is that for the 10-pack chicken mini?

She goes, yes, the meal, sir. I said, okay. You want folks to pay. You want folks to earn. Wait. I want everyone to make as much money as possible. No one in the meme accounts misconstrued what I'm saying here. Make as much money as possible. No one in the meme accounts misconstrue what I'm saying here. Make as much money as you want.

Go after as much money you want. I'm a capitalist. But the flip side of that is folks are going to look in ownership on the board of directors, stockholders, CEOs, C-suite, whatever you want,

are going to utilize technology to try to replace you and that's what's going to happen here the rates are going to go up in this hotel and that's going to trickle over to other properties and when this other hotel comes on market if it does with heirloom development the one by the Omni which I think that's where he's going now

get ready for even more aggressive hotel battles. And I'm going to tell you right now, when a guy that's in a developer position switches from 134 apartments to 160 hotels, he initially had an apartment complex of 134 apartments. 134 apartments on the downtown mall would have been bona fide. And it would have appeased a group like Livable Charlottesville, the urbanist

policy group that's trying to push, that's the primary pusher of upzoning. This developer said, Jesus, I don't want to deal with this. I'm going to make this hotels and try to make as much money as possible. He said no to the housing, apartments on the mall, and said, give me hotels.

And some people would make the argument, well, when you have inclusionary zoning criteria and restrictions, this is what Charlottesville is doing. A project that is 10 units or more, 10 units or more, a housing project, 10 units or more 10 units or more a housing project 10 units or more 10% of that housing stock whatever you're creating has to be affordable housing tied to area median income for 99 years or fork over money to the city I don't think that's an option is it not that's not an. Is it not? That's not an option. That is not an option. Haven't we been hearing all about that? No. It's tied to AMI 99 years. Okay. The 10% of the project. I suggested to Ned Galloway yesterday, allow the developers to develop what they want,

and instead of putting red tape of what your project should look like, have them throw the money to a fund, an account, some kind of slush where you, the county, can do some stuff with. And he basically alluded, well, we don't want to be in the real estate ownership and development game, the county ourselves. But you can invest that money into voucher programs. You can invest that money into the land trust as a donation or a contribution Tom Powell, John Snow, Neil Williamson, hello newspapers and TV watching the program

Janice Boyce Trevelyan Andre Xavier, we've got to get to his comment Andre Xavier is Andre Xavier, we got to get to his comment. Andre Xavier's in this business. Andre Xavier is in this business. Get Andre's photo on screen. The power rankings are at ilovecevil.com forward slash viewer rankings. ilovecevil.com forward slash viewer rankings. Folks, offer your commentary now about this transaction. I'll relay it live on air. Albert Craves, I'll get to your comments. Deep Throats, I'm going to get to your comments. Anybody else, I'm going to get to your comments. Andre Xavier does this professionally for a living. Is it live? What? His photo, is it on there? I've got to go find it.

All right, go find it. Andre Xavier, ilovecebal.com forward slash viewer rankings. Mr. Xavier is... He's not on there. What? That's why I've got to find one. He's not on the power rankings? That's a mistake I have made. Put him on there. Right under Dr. John Shave, the owner of Pro Renata. Andre Xavier says this, 300,000 per room. Charlottesville's average daily rate for the court category is probably around 300 bucks. Assuming they have an 80% year-round occupancy, it would take a very long time for them to recoup this investment. Maybe it is a real estate play or depreciation, a 1031 play or something like that. We talked about 1031s earlier this week, a like-kind exchange, a starker exchange,

where you're trying to shelter gains by rolling your money into another property. I don't think it's a 1031 in this scenario because this hospitality group is only two years old. So they're so youthful. They haven't done transactions like this to 1031. He says, it's definitely interesting to see what happens. I want to talk about the occupancy rate he alludes to. Cooper, the hospitality manager of Cork, Richmond, the guy who's running the day-to-day with his restaurant hospitality, he says the Richmond location maintains a 76% occupancy so far this year. 76% occupancy.

He said the Charlottesville one is way lower. So, Deep Throat, this is right up your eye. Yeah, Jesus, Deep Throat just said I think Andre is high on the occupancy. Deep Throat, we're ESPN right now. So 70%, 76, 76 occupancy for

Cork, Richmond, according to the guy who runs the hotel. And he said Charlottesville's way lower than 76. Andre just built a model with an 80% occupancy and he says it's going to take effing forever for them to recoup their money. Was the 76% number for Richmond?

Yeah. Yeah, not Charlottesville. That's what I just said. Okay, sorry. 76 is for Richmond and Charlottesville is way lower. Yeah. Way lower Charlottesville. To the point where the dude is saying

the guy who manages hotels for a living, day-to-day operations, that the Charlottesville market is soft. And there's more hotels being built. All right, let's go to Deep Throat. Deep Throat's in the finance business. Give me your comments, folks. I'll relay them live on air.

So he says this. Here's Deep Throat from a real estate lens. So, Quirk, it seems like $24 million is not that much above what land costs plus subsequent borrowings amount to. Somewhat surprised, honestly, at $300,000 per room. CoStar reported national average for single asset sales at $225,000 per room. But Quark seems more like luxury in a market that seems to be attracting more new build of hotels. And CoStar reports average for luxury properties at $800,000 per room. Deep Throat says this. So what is curious to me is that this property is trading for what I would consider a mediocre price. At the same time,

you have another developer abandoning an approved multifamily project, the apartments by Omni, which we just talked about, in favor of a hotel. Somebody's got it wrong. Or he says Quirk management was a mess, and he said he stayed at Quirk Richmond, and it's way cooler than the one here. And he does say, props to you, that a developer can buy out the inclusionary zoning requirement, which was the comment you made.

I've been reading a lot about that. I mean, I'm seeing a lot about that in some of these articles. So I stand corrected. I apologize. Good call on that. Thank you for holding me accountable there. Because didn't one project raise their, what do you call it? They raised it from, I think they were initially offering something like $460,000,

and they upped their, this might have been for the hotel project over by UVA, the one on JPA, or I don't know where the street is, but the big one that everybody's upping arms about. I think they upped their donation to $1 million to the city. Nice. I like it. Dude, keep bringing the ammunition, homie. The one Judah's referring to,

up there proper, but that was under the old zoning. That's what he's saying. The hotel, dude, in the last, on March 14th, we led the show on the 14th of March on this network. We led the show with the fact that Hilton purchased graduate hotels for $210 million. Now that was, if memory serves correct, that was a licensing deal.

Hilton buys graduate hotels for $210 million. I'm doing this on the fly. Hilton confirms it will buy Graduate Hotels for $210 million. Hilton reached a deal with AJ Capital Partners. They were the owners of the Graduate Hotel to acquire all rights to the Graduate Hot's brands worldwide for $210 million. Through the deal, Hilton will enter into a long-term franchise agreement. It's a franchising deal for all existing and signed hotels in Graduate's pipeline.

AJ Capital will still be the owner of the more than 35 operating and signed graduate hotels. So in March, we got Hilton doing a franchise deal on the graduate properties for $210 million. Not the real estate, but franchising it. It was just licensing the brand. They're licensing the brand for $210. In this particular deal, we have a Manhattan firm dropping $24 million, not only for the Quark brand, which 134 room apartment on next to the Omni and saying, peace, I'm effing out of this 134 room apartment tower. And instead I'm going to do a bone 60 hotels instead on the mall. Yeah. So who's effing up here. Someone's pencil and napkin and math ain't mathing. You got

24 million for an 80 room hotel that's quirk. You got a dude that's saying peace out to 134 apartments to build 160 hotels instead next to the Omni.

And then you got Hilton dropping 210 for just the brand rights. Something ain't math in there. How so? You got the operations director for Quark Charlottesville saying occupancy at this hotel is average at best. You got Kempton just on market at the Darden School

and UVA bringing another hotel to market over there. Omni just did a 15-some million dollar renovation. Remember? The Omni Hotel and the Mall? Massive 15 million dollar renovation. Something's not math in here. The boots

on the street is saying the market is soft. Before I get off this topic, I will say this. This scenario, this what's happening with this Manhattan guy coming in and bringing in his technology, this is another kick in the nuts for frontline workers. Yeah. Especially the... They're going to have to keep some staff. I mean, obviously, computers aren't going to clean the rooms. They're not going to cook meals.

But it sounds like they'll be... They'll definitely be cutting a large portion of their front desk staff. Yeah. You know those Airbnbs? The Airbnbs where the owner's not even on site that has the technology on his phone to let you in the house? Right.

I got your money. I got the code. What time you getting there? All right, I'm going to use my phone to let you in. You're in the house. I got cameras to watch you and make sure you're doing the right thing. I don't know about that. Why do you need a front desk?

You will need somebody there. What, the bellhop to help you with your luggage? Maybe the parking attendant? You certainly aren't going to need a deep front desk. Your call center can be outsourced. It doesn't have to be on site. We got one client who's in the virtual assistant business that's basically trying to use his network

of virtual assistants overseas, targeting local businesses and saying, I got these VAs that can replace your staff. Right? They work. You got the Manhattan, the New York City chicken, fried chicken place Deep Throat

was telling us about that got rid of their host stand and their cashier and this fried chicken place in the Big Apple has got an iPad stand with an iPad on it and someone in Taiwan on an iPad through Zoom saying, welcome to the fried chicken place. Where would you like to be seated? You need to work on that accent.

What's the accent instead? How can I help you, sir? What are you needing to do today? Can I get you a tasty... What's the guy from The Simpsons? Apu. Is that where you were going? Yeah, Apu.

You ripped that off from Apu. Who's your favorite Simpsons character? I haven't watched The Simpsons in decades. Mr. Burns for me. Mr. Burns? Dude, I know. I'm setting you up. I'm giving you a softball to go after you.

Mr. Burns. This is where you counter, you would be. You would be, Mr. Burns. Yeah. That was a softball for you. I'm not going to go there. You're too kind. You're too kind.

Neil says, Charlottesville and Williamson, his photo on screen. Charlottesville zoning ordinance allows an expensive buyout that can be prorated. One more thing from Deep Throat. The hotel building here is crazy. I get it that an investor could say we could use one more hotel here based on high rates and occupancy, but we have low rates, mediocre occupancy, and people bringing on tons of hotels. I don't get it at all. That's the point I'm making.

That's my point. Do you see the point? You're saying that they're building for something that may have already reached capacity but we don't know it yet because they haven't the business hadn't picked up enough to uh to fill it there's a guy eventually you're going to build past what you need and we're already there i know but there's a guy that runs a hospitality group that does day-to-day operations his group is called Retro Hospitality. He runs hotels day to day. He said the hotel market in Charlottesville is not recovered since COVID. And despite that, there's hundreds of millions of dollars being invested into hotels. Scratch that.

Billions of dollars being invested into hotels. Kimpton, 210 million. Now, granted, not all that's in Charlottesville. There's only one graduate in Charlottesville. This 24 million, whatever the dude pumps into this 160 hotel room project heirloom, you got north of a billion dollars coming and the guy who runs the day-to-day operation

saying the market is flat and has not recovered since COVID. Something is not mathing here, folks. You can't just keep raising rates. Right? Yeah. Olivia Branch Olivia Branch is the queen of Keswick here she knows the hotel business inside and out she says nothing takes place of face to face service if you're offering luxury room prices

and she knows she's in this business I still prefer face to face And she knows. She's in this business. I still prefer face-to-face. I don't want to go to the grocery store and bag my own groceries. I don't. I don't want to go to the quick-serve restaurant and kiosk it up or phone app it up. I want to talk to someone at the register.

But I'll tell you what. My wife doesn't want to do that. You don't want to do that. Sometimes I do. I'm an anomaly. Holly Foster, who knows Olivia from where Olivia works, she says, I agree with Olivia 100%. That's why my favorite hotel is Borset or Keswick. Borset does a fantastic job. Is Russ watching the program right now? Russ watches the show Cronberg from time to time. It was good to see you the other day,

Russ Cronberg. Is he watching now? Borset does a fantastic job of staffing its properties. But a lot of the team members are on short-term visas. Holly Foster and Olivia Branch. I relayed this live on air. Thank you for watching. Is that... I don't want to use the B word. You know the B word?

I know a lot of them. Is that the next B word? I'm not sure which one you're using here. It rhymes with trouble. Oh. And it's synonymous with trouble. I mean, you don't think any of... You think all these people are on the wrong track?

You think they're all making a mistake that these hotels are just going to stay doing what they're doing? I mean, if they're doing less than 75%, aren't they getting filled up every weekend, though? Can your business sustain itself with Friday and Saturday night room rentals? I'm not a hotelier. I honestly don't know. And what happens when the big UVA one comes on market this one next to the

Omni comes on market and additional supply elsewhere comes on market we got a cover on the show my phone is we're blowing up right here Albert Graves I'm going to get to your comments We've got to cover on the show. My phone is blowing up right here. Albert Graves, I'm going to get to your comments in a matter of moments.

Albert Graves has this comment. Maybe the new owners of the Quark are betting that the occupancy rate will go up with the opening of the UVA Data Science School and the Biotech School. I think that will impact occupancy. Strong comment. I mentioned this live on air. I think that will certainly impact occupancy.

We've got other topics we want to cover on the show. Let's go to see if anything's on LinkedIn. God, I love when the shows give us this kind of content. John Blair's got some comments. Let's get John Blair's photo on screen. Number two in the family. He said, Jerry, I would be curious if this purchase is financed. Do you think they could get a term longer than 10 years? Hotels use RevPAR to measure efficiency. I'd be curious what the three-year RevPAR measure is for the Quirk. If RevPAR is 150,

that would equate to 4.4 million per year. I'd be curious what the financing and operational cost per year is for Quirk. It's a great question. That is out of my comfort zone. That is out of my pay grade right there. He said he'd love to hear Andre's Guestman on Quirk's Rev Par. Andre Xavier, are you still watching the show? I'm going to screenshot this question and send this to Andre Xavier. Andre Xavier, if you're still watching right now, I would love an answer to this from John Blair. I'm sending this to Andre. This is a question from LinkedIn for you. I've sent John's screenshot via LinkedIn through Facebook Messenger to Andre who knows this business inside and out. Andre has received the screenshot. I can't wait to see bubbles.

Give me bubbles so I know you're responding here, Andre. Great question. Deep throat answers. I think the Revpar chart shows you hey, hey. I think the Revpar chart shows you that the high rates are only for very isolated dates. He says $100 RevPAR is a joke. I mean, what are the extremely busy weekends in this town? Some football games, some key basketball games, graduation, reunions, and move-in weekend? All right, I've got to get to some other news here. Put headline four on screen. I'll set the stage.

You jump in, Judah Wickauer. Louisa County Board of Supervisors at a meeting on Monday of this week, got a lot of news happened on Monday, at a meeting on Monday of this week said, we don't like what Piedmont Virginia Community College is doing when it comes to anti-Semitism. They allowed the airing of a certain film. All right, you want to jump in here. Tell me the film. The film is called Israelism. I don't think that Louisa County is so much mad at PVCC for... We got bubbles coming from Andre Xavier for John Blair. I don't mean to interrupt. Anti-Semitism.

I think, as they said in their statement, they just want clarification. They want a statement from PVCC on where they stand with anti-Semitism and all of that. And so I don't think it's so much that they're accusing the school of anti-Semitism as they want to know that they're not allowing this film because that's what they believe. But they want to hear from the school that this isn't some type of play for propaganda. PVC, John Blair, you've got bubbles coming from Andre Xavier to answer your question. I will relay them to you as soon as these bubbles come through. PVCC has issued a statement.

Louisa's Board of Supervisors has said, give us a statement. PVCC has responded to the demand. I said yesterday the exposure PVCC has is if other jurisdictions follow suit of Louisa, who is basically holding funding hostage, demanding that Piedmont issue a statement. This could be the same strategy utilized with Jim Ryan and UVA. Jim Ryan and UVA have done no statements when it comes to anti-Semitism and the safety and security of Jewish students on grounds. Nothing. And that's what's pissing off razor blade Burtemitism and the safety and security of Jewish students on grounds. Nothing.

And that's what's pissing off razor blade Bert Ellis and the Board of Visitors. Piedmont's trying to get in front of this because of the very reason I said yesterday. If they don't get in front of this and issue a statement, other localities could do the same thing. Worse, other benefactors or donors can do the same thing. Hold money hostage.

And the next time it could be somebody that actually has a significant... Bank. Has bank. This is what Piedmont says. Quote, we regret the decision by the Louisa County Board of Supervisors to withdraw funding from Piedmont Virginia Community College pending an in-person explanation. PVCC has served the community since 1972, benefiting hundreds of thousands of students who rely upon the college's affordable, accessible programs to support their career development. We ask that the board reconsider their decision as the college plays a crucial role in supporting the community. PVCC is committed to fostering a safe environment, freedom of expression. Like the board, the college condemns any

discrimination in the strongest terms. End quote. What are your thoughts on that statement? You know, you would think that they could just, you'd think the statement could have just been an honest answer to the question. Seriously. This is called word salad. It sounds. This is word salad. They kind of answer the question in the last. PBCC, this is word salad.

In the last sentence. But they don't address the anti-Semitism, just the discrimination. And, yeah, really it sounds like, I mean, sadly it sounds like they're mad that they're getting called out. But I don't think that PVCC is, I don't think there's anything anti-Semitic in what they're trying to do. And I don't think allowing the students to play a movie which seems like which is why this is so baffling because it seems like this is a very simple uh louisa is asking for a statement pvcc gives a statement the money's back on the table everybody's happy now, I feel like they're opening themselves up to, you know, you said it yourself. Louisa doing this could open the floodgates of other people doing this.

And the easiest way to head that off at the pass is just to release a statement saying, we do not support anti-Semitism. We do not support anti-semitism we do not support discrimination this was a student-led movie that was put on and we neither endorse nor condemn it some sometimes every sometimes things get political that don't have to. Or they just get... I mean, we've served the community since 19... Who cares? Yeah.

Who gives a rat's tail? What does that have to do with how you feel about anti-Semitism and discrimination? Here's your statement. We're vehemently opposed to antisemitism. Yeah. We are champions of free speech, but we will protect our students first. Yeah.

And we will always protect our students. And please, Louisa County, we need your funding and the funding from all jurisdictions because we help kids. Right. That's it. Instead, you give me chat GBT mumbo jumbo. Yeah.

Less is more. Yeah. History of the school. Thanks. Who gives a rat's tail? We protect our kids, and we put their protection first. I said this all the time here. What is the number one rule for, number one job for a school?

Teaching kids? No. A number one job for a school is not to teach your kids. It's to maintain the safety of their kids. Because no parents are going to send a kid to a school if they don't think kids. It's to maintain the safety of their kids. Because no parents are going to send a kid to a school if they don't think their kids are going to be safe. A number one job for any school is

safety of the kids. Number two job for a school, if there's transportation involved, get them to and from the school safely. And then three, teach them. If the kids ain't safe, people aren't going to go to the school.

Andre Xavier says this. Are you ready, John Blair? Show's on fire today. I hope you guys appreciate the show. We work our tails off for you. This is from Mr. Xavier. John Blair is correct. RevPAR is the metric used to measure how well a hotel is from Mr. Xavier. John Blair is correct. Revpar is the metric used to measure how well a hotel is doing financially. I would not know the quirk numbers. Paul would be

the one to know. Sorry for not having a better answer on that. I respect Andre's straightforwardness. Paul Cooper would certainly know. I may reach out to Paul, although I think Paul would be hesitant to offer more commentary on this, considering he's still managing Cork Richmond. Aren't they still managing Charlottesville, too? Until June, and then they lose the contract. Are they losing the entire contract? For Cork-Charlottesville. Okay. Yeah.

Next headline. And then we're going to get to comments here. Comments are on fire. What's the next one? Next headline is... Oh! Personal property taxes and Jim Anders. Look, if you watched Ned Galloway on the show yesterday, we had Ned Galloway of the Alamo County Board of Supervisors on Real Talk yesterday.

That show was as good a show as we've ever done. Ned Galloway. You can find that wherever you get your podcasting content. You can find that wherever you get your social media content. It was phenomenal. He said yesterday, on yesterday's show, we're going to be voting tonight, meaning last night, on the personal property tax rate increase. He basically alluded that this was going to go through. I kind of pushed him and I'm like, dude, this is going to go through.

The tax increase is fairly substantial. You want to put it in perspective, the increase? You got it in front of you? Yeah. Talk to us. We're looking at Albemarle County, Albemarle Countians. Sure. I would say if you're going to create a brand,

the brand you're going to want to create would be out of the word Albemarle instead of county because county is everywhere. Yeah, I know. So Albemarleans? Albemarleans? Yeah, something like that. Anyways, we are looking at a 54-cent personal property tax increase that's going to be $3.96 per $100 of assessed value. That is a big increase. I mean, that's what?

What's the dollar from what to what? I mean, it's going up to $3.96. So $54 is what? Roughly, it would have been roughly one-seventh of... This is a massive increase. Of 342? This is a massive increase. This is with the chair of the Board of Supervisors, Jim Andrews,

who's been on this network before, Jim Andrews, Samuel Miller District. He says, yes, I understand this is a big increase. But then he says, the personal property tax is adjusted upward to reflect the fact that we took it down a couple years ago during the pandemic based on vehicle values and other things. We're bringing it back to a level that is still less than what it was, but gets us the same revenue level we had in 2022. This is why that quote from the chair is out of touch. He's basically saying this. Hey, it's still lower than before COVID.

Well, whoop-dee-doo. You're still raising it. And you're raising it at a time when? When everything is more expensive. Bingo. People are finding out how... Starving. Little they can afford at the grocery store.

Death of a thousand cuts. Make it a thousand and one now. Yeah. Before covid rates weren't this high before covid groceries weren't this costly before covid gas weren't this expensive before covid real estate assessments didn't go like this. Yeah. Tax rate didn't go like this tax rate didn't go like this meals tax didn't go like this clothes weren't like this anyone who's bought a house in the last what

come on now two years it's not as high as it was before COVID that's like pissing in the wind that's the kind of stuff that irritates me. The commentary that Piedmont gave where they weren't straightforward, this is the kind of commentary. This is what you say instead. Dude, we know everyone's hurting. I'm hurting.

But we got to raise it because we're at a deficit with Albemarle, and we're sorry. And we're going to try to figure out other incremental new sources of tax revenue to help it recover so we can keep it at this number for an extended period of time. I'm sorry. That's how you do it. A couple of items out of the notebook. I'm going to go to the Monticello Motors. We're in the business brokerage business.

Is it too much to ask for the CBB logo on screen? I think I can get that up there now. Charlottesvillebusinessbrokers.com. It's our business brokerage division. We just sold Krobi's Restaurant, Avon Extended. The new buyer will let you know what's coming there. That announcement should be coming soon, our client. Monticello Motors is for sale.

Monticello Motors is for sale. Monticello Motors is on Route 29. It's got a fantastic location. This was previously owned by friend of the program, David Tricarici. He and his wife ran Monticello Motors. Chris Kabash, friend of the program, was the car buyer for David Tricarici at one time. Know those guys extremely well.

Had a conversation with David Tricarici this morning. Nice. He had a conversation with my wife and I and our youngest son. Great to see David. Had a conversation. When was Chris Kavash in the studio? A couple days ago? Yeah.

The asking price is $125,000. You're interested in buying Monticello Motors, reach out to us. We'll see if we can broker a deal here. There's upside and opportunity here, but it's probably best suited, and I'm going to be straightforward and frank, for an owner-operator.

There's an opportunity for you to learn the car business and have some on-site transitional training. This is an opportunity here for someone who wants to be self-employed. I can help you purchase this business. $125,000 ask. Should we save the honor code in AI detecting until tomorrow's show? Give them a tease of what it is. We've got the Kyle Miller show coming up soon. Basically, the honor Society, is that what it is? The Honor, something like that, at UVA are... The Honor Code Committee?

Yeah, something like that. They're kind of like a judicial committee, and they're trying to decide whether or not to ban AI detectors being used as evidence against a student, which I think is probably wise, though. What? I'm shocked that you're taking this. It's notoriously erroneous. I had conversations over the Easter weekend

with a UVA professor, and he indicated to me that we cannot keep up with this already. And we know it's rampant. We know that it's being utilized, and it's unchecked and out of control. His exact words. Okay. But if... I'm basically just going to say computers and artificial intelligence can write papers and teachers and professors and see... No, he's not saying that.

This will be a good show for tomorrow. The problem is that the AI detectors are unreliable. And so using unreliable evidence, allowing unreliable, and so using unreliable evidence, allowing unreliable evidence against students is a slippery slope. We'll try to manage that slippery slope on tomorrow's edition of the I Love Seville show. He's Judah Wigower. He crushed

it today. My name is Jerry Miller. It's a program that just talks about Charlottesville, Alamaro, UVA, and Central Virginia. And we thank you kindly for joining us. The Kyle Miller Show is up at 2.15 p.m. And he's got a pretty fantastic entrepreneur and businessman as his guest. So long, everybody.

Good show, guys. Thank you.