The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Dewberry Hotel "Under Contract" For $9M; 98 Studio Apartments, 10% Affordable, Parking Included

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Dewberry Hotel Skeleton “Under Contract” For $9M 98 Studio Apartments, 10% Affordable, Parking Included $15.5M Equity Raised, $42M Project Budget City Of CVille Contribution + Investor Community Next Steps 20-Minute Interview With Kandi Comer Comer Opening Indoor Golf Studio In Ivy Square In Nov. Why Indoors & Ivy Square? What Can We Expect? Do You Need Commercial Real Estate? Contact Jerry Miller Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Kandi Comer, Owner of Kandi Comer Golf, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the I Love Seville Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on a Friday in downtown Charlottesville. This is the number one media platform in Charlottesville. This is where Charlottesville, Almore County, in central Virginia, you know, hang out. This is where we congregate and we learn what's going on. Yesterday was an impactful show. And since yesterday's show, my phone has been, you know, just my wife's, my wife calls my phone Bambi.

She calls my phone Bambi because I spend sometimes more time with Bambi than I do, you know, this is sad to say. Sometimes, you know, with family. How I make my living is with my phone. She said, the other woman Bambi is commanding too much of your attention. It's time to put Bambi down and be present with your family. That's what she said to me yesterday.

And I did. And I do get consumed with work because I love it. And she is tolerant of it because she knows it's how we pay the mortgage and school tuition and our life. But it gets to a point, and I think any entrepreneur and any partner of an entrepreneur or business owner can relate to it where it's so consuming that there's a negative impact. There's no turn off. And that was yesterday and last night. And then it was a wake-up call and I put it down. The news we had on yesterday's show was the Dewberry Hotel is under contract.

We're going to unpack this storyline even more on today's show. Under contract does not mean closed. It does not mean recorded. It means under contract. But under contract is a significant, significant. storyline for a skeleton that's, you know, plagued this community since, what, 2012? I mean, 2012 is when Dewberry purchased the property at auction for $6,250,000. It's plagued our downtown mall skyline for even longer than that.

You want to know something that's wild is the Dewberry Hotel, and before that, the landmark hotel with Halsey Minor and Lee Danielson, has... plagued the most important eight blocks in our central Virginia region, the downtown mall, for a generation that like that'll put things in perspective for for us. It's been a generation of of nuisance here and and when a team of of developers put a game plan together. I have the pitch deck in front of me. I have the the the the the pro forma. I understand details that you know I'm not going to to talk about on this show, but this is an impressive team. This is a plan of attack that is nuanced and sophisticated and well thought out.

This is not a ton of money to raise. The equity raises $15.5 million. A $42 million budget seems totally doable for 98 studio apartments, some co-working space. a restaurant and some rooftop amenities, some mail room, some bike storage space. The city seems like they're playing ball. The city is willing to offer parking spaces in a city owned and managed garage and some frozen real estate taxes. I think that is a no-brainer for Chris Engel and Sam Sanders and city council. and there's a roadmap here to taking a skeleton that is infested with rats and hobo urination and graffiti and making it beautiful.

And I'm surprised after we broke the news on the I Love Seville Network yesterday of some of the response from community members about the the asking rents. I'm surprised that people are responding in what is a post that's gone viral. I mean, now the entire region has seen what I published. I looked at the metrics this morning, and across all our platforms what we posted, there's been a little over 600,000 unique IP addresses.

So not just locally, but outside the region, has read what we published yesterday. And I'm surprised that a small faction, this is an extremely small faction, folks, but a faction, nevertheless, what they've chosen to focus on is the cost to rent. And the cost to rent these studio apartments, you know, is market rate $1,935 a month

for a 400 square foot studio and 2,269 a month for a 530 square foot junior one-bedroom apartment. And the response has been, this is unaffordable. This is not what Charlottesville needs. And I'm going to push back on that immediately. And I'm going to lead with that on the show here. What this development team is trying to do with the Dewberry is incremental housing. And any incremental housing, no matter the price point, helps stabilize price, helps suppress price, helps cater to demand.

and we have a region, Charlottesville and Almore County in particular, where thousands are flocking to. The university is admitting more students than ever. The applicant pool for the University of Virginia, ladies and gentlemen, is more significant than it's ever been. The admissions pool is more significant than it's ever been. And this doesn't even factor in these new schools that Paul Manning and Jaffrey Woodruff have fun that are coming online at more significance. and momentum where the student body is going to further uptick at Thomas Jefferson's University. We need housing. We need the Chris Henry to the world to do phase three dairy market.

And whether you can afford the price point of phase three dairy market or whether you can afford the price point of Judah, if you want to have candy right there, I could see you candy, and whether you can afford the price point of this Dewberry Hotel apartment conversion, or whether you can afford the Verve, which is the apartment tower next to Scott Stadium, or the Bloom, which is the apartment tower next to Moe's original barbecue, that's not the point. I understand the price point is at the top of the market.

I totally get it. But that price point at the top of the market is going to attract demand, and when that attracts demand, it's going to open up housing stock at lower price point levels. It's going to stabilize price point or encourage tenants and encourage landlords to potentially cut rates. That's supply and demand 101. Learn that from Ken Elsinga and economics, my first economics class at the University of Virginia. Okay, that's just basic economics. So we need to get off this hill about this price

point being too expensive because what it's doing is it's taking rental stock at the middle of the market and the bottom of the market and it's probably throttling the yearly upticks that those landlords can put into play with their tenant profile, with their tenant pool. Now, I want to take a look at this from the vantage or the viewpoint of what this is going to do for the downtown mall. This is something that should not be understated. I've had conversations with building owners up and down the downtown mall. up and down the downtown mall. Play squash with one of them.

Play Padel with another one of them. Did multiple seller finance deals with a third of them, with a third one. A fourth one is a mentor of mine. A fifth one, I get cold beers with two or three times a month. A six one I have coffee with on a, on a regular basis. And the seventh and eighth ones that owned, you know, condo complexes in Alamaro County and

positions on Water Street and on the downtown mall, we walk up and down the mall together on a once or twice a month basis. And the overwhelming feedback from this class of folks, if you may, is the impact that the Dewberry is going to have on on on property values when the project is finished okay it is absolutely no secret then when you take a skeleton that's plagued a community for a generation the Dewberry the landmark and you reposition or reimagine it as 98 studio apartments a restaurant on ground level rooftop amenities that you are going to drive tremendous value tremendous value for all adjacent buildings even buildings even

buildings and positions that are not on the downtown mall will have value uptick. You cannot deny that. And that return on investment is difficult to quantify, but that return on investment is extremely very real, and that return on investment is what the developer group is going to try to capture and leverage to raise its $15.5 million to help jumpstart this project. I want to emphasize on this program, and I did it yesterday. I'm going to do it again on the show, that there's a ways to go. Under contract does not mean recorded or closed. There's a ways to go. And a ways to go, you need further confidence in the structure. I'm confident that the development

team is already confident that the structure is good because they're leading in their pitch deck that this structure has $5 million of added value. They're buying the dirt for, what, six in change, or they're buying the dirt from Dewberry, and they got added value here, 9 million under contract, and they got added value of 5. That's what they're saying. They wouldn't position this structure as being a focal point of the deal. as upside if they hadn't done due diligence. I'm sure they'll do more.

They're obviously going to need inspector and third-party approval as this project is built out. But you don't lead with a pitch deck with this structure as being the value here, being a jumpstart to the project, unless you've already done your homework. I think the other element that's going to have to move in the right direction

is the city involvement. Michael Payne can't screw this up. Michael Payne's already screwed this up. Michael Payne's legacy in this community in a lot of ways is going to be tarred, his, you know, tarnished, his digital tombstone, the two-term city counselor, as the guy that messed up the deal with John Dewberry in the first place.

When he ran for counsel before his first term, before he got counsel on counsel the first time, he tarded John Dewberry. And he used John Dewberry and basically labeled him as a white, wealthy, out-of-market developer, and the city should not provide tax advantages to John Dewberry to take this skeleton that Halsey Minor left on the downtown mall and turn it into a hotel. And what Michael Payne did at that time was wrong. Development should not have a negative connotation with it. Developers are not bad people.

Developers are in the business, yes, of making money. we all are who are in business, we have to make money to keep the lights on. Developers get these connotations of being evil people, and I just don't understand that concept. They create tremendous jobs along the way, tremendous opportunities along the way, tremendous tax revenue for their jurisdictions when the projects are finished, and they reimagine opportunities or they have the gift of imagining opportunities that few people do not. And Michael Payne in the shadows of August 11th and August 12th, he used the collateral damage of August 11th and August 12th, the fragility of August 11th and August 12th to tar and feather John Dewberry is a bad guy. And all this

out-of-market developer was trying to do was take a project that was left for dead because of the bankruptcy of a Halsey minor and reimagined it into a hotel in a jurisdiction in Charlottesville that was under-hoteled on the downtown mall where everyone wanted to be when they visited the community. It was genius. He bought

it for $6.2 million and he wanted to reimagine it. It was genius. $6,250,000 he bought it in 2012. And then Michael Payne Tars and Feathers, this guy is a greedy out-of-market-white developer. And I pushed back on it

then, and I'm going to push back on it now. If a guy like a Michael Payne jumps in the mix and starts talking about expensive rents and how this is a development team that's only focused on the top of the market, we as a community need to push back on Michael Payne and say, that's enough, Michael. That's enough. And I emphasize that this guy, literally a two-term city counselor, just moved out of his parents' basement, literally not to throw shade on the guy, but more to give you an indication that this is the leadership that's running a city in a quarter of a billion dollar budget that's determining where our businesses are going and our tax revenue is going literally lived in his parents basement as a mid-30s upper 30s man okay so i'm going to push back

on pain if he if he tries to label this development team as being profiteering or pirating or greedy. That should not happen, cannot happen. And I hope to God the Chris Engels of the world, the head of the economic development, and the Sam Sanders of the world, grab pain by his britches and just shake them and say enough, Mikey. I think Juan Wade and Lloyd Snook understand the significance of this project. Natalie Oshran is pro-housing because she's toes the company line of livable Seaville. I think you have a Jen Fleischer and a Michael Payne that are going to try to influence maybe a Natalie Osharan or a Juan Wade to make this some kind of three-two vote where things get interesting with this development project.

Regardless what we know is it's under contract, the team wants to close before close of business. They are literally passing the hat for a $15.5 million equity raise, and they're basing these. efforts on it's a return on investment that's not going to be the top ROI possible but the return on investment is you adjacent building owners are going to get significant value for your positions once this project is finished and that's an absolute fact when the Dewberry is done the uptick for properties associated around the Dewberry is going to be I would say sizable and that's another

benefit that I want to emphasize here. When the Dewberry is finished, not only is the city going to capture the incremental tax dollars associated with a completed project associated with 98 studio apartments, but it's also going to capture the incremental tax dollars associated with the restaurant on the bottom level, the co-working space in this building, and it's going to capture incremental tax dollars as assessments with buildings adjacent to the Dewberry are going to uptick and value, which means more revenue for Charlottesville. It's going to win so many times over here. It's also going to position young professionals, white-collar professionals on the downtown mall at a time when the downtown mall needs more support, especially live-workplace support.

This is as a good and use of story as I've seen in Charlottesville for some time and certainly for its downtown mall. And I'm again going to encourage the, the local media outlets like the Daily Progress and the Seville Weekly and Seville right now to kind of get off their tail and do some reporting and some digging. Like, why haven't you guys reported this yet? I want to give some attention to a partner of the show, John and Andrew Vermillion at Charlestville Sanitary Supply. John and Andrew Vermillion are partners of the show.

Their business, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, has some service verticals like Virginia Vacuum Company and Charlottesville swimming pool company where they're the source of the source for anything swimming pool related, anything vacuum related, anything bono wood flooring related, anything cleaning related.

The Vermilions are five generations in Almaro. The business is three generations strong and it's been in operations for 63 years. What I do here at my business and my firm is championed locally owned and operated. I've been here 26 years. I came here as a first year at the University of Virginia

where the only thing I was interested in doing is the first year was closing down Coupes and O'Neils and meeting girls. And now I'm married, have two sons, have a kid at a fantastic school in our community, and a soon-to-be-four-year-old, that's another school. And it's just a joy to live here. And I will continue to be the champion of what's going on here locally. I want to ask the viewers and listeners to put to put their comments in the future, feed I'll relay it live on air. I have Candy Comer in studio here. She's fabulous. I mean,

goodness gracious, you talk about locally owned and operated and you talk about someone who's growing up in this community and seeing the positive impacts of development in this community. It's her family. It's her dad. You talk about someone that's a success story. We'll talk about her opening up an indoor studio, an indoor swing studio in the Ivy Square. shopping center. I think it's a genius move. Literally, she threaded the needle perfectly. We'll chat with Candy here in about seven minutes. There's a lot of comments coming in. There's a lot of people watching. I'm going to mention some of these comments. We'll go to number one in the family, deep throat, his photo on screen. And, Judah, the photos with the folks on

screen, they were on very long on yesterday's show. It should be about five seconds on screen removed, and lower third should be rotated constantly throughout the show, making the visuals much more dynamic with the production. This is number one in the family here. He says, look, if we're talking about an empty lot, I could see that people might say, no, let's try to use this for an affordable housing project. But this is not an empty lot.

It's a half-built eyesore. Forget about whether this is the kind of apartments you would most like to see built. This is about getting rid of an eyesore. Dewberry will keep it empty if he doesn't get an inflated price. So your choice is either empty eyesore or somewhat expensive apartments. End of story. And on the real estate tax abatement, I am not a fan of taxes and negotiable tribute, but if there's a development that is clear winner for the city, it's this one.

Studios and junior one bedrooms between 1900 and 2400 a month will not call on the most expensive services the city provides. provides, public schools, families aren't living in that building, and social services. These people have money, have jobs, and generally have their you know what together. They will pay a lot of sales and meals taxes, leaving property taxes aside. Here's what Deep Throat is saying here, and it's a point that I should have made as well. At a call it a 2,000 or 2,100 a month, monthly rent, for a studio apartment, the people that are going to potentially rent at the Dewberry are not going to be families with

kids, so they're not going to be taxing public schools. They're going to do limited driving because it's more of a live-work play, live in this apartment tower, walk to where you want to go. And at that monthly rent, they're going to be well-heeled enough, have the take-home income, where they're going to be spending a lot of money on the downtown mall. These are incremental tax sources across the board for the city for the city to win. comments put them in the feed I will relay I'm live on air

we have we have city counselors watching the program and I would encourage the city councilors that are watching the show don't overthink this like literally don't overthink this you have an opportunity where this

will be your legacy like if this like the city counselors that are watching the show this gets to closing if this gets to closing every counselor that's on the dais right now, this will be a part of your digital tombstone

if this gets to closing. Anything you want to add to this, Judah Wickhauer behind the camera? Comments put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. We have Candy Comber in studio. If you want to welcome Candy to the set, I'll talk more on the Dewberry

after this interview with the fabulous Candy Comer. She is opening indoor swing studio in Ivy Square Shopping Center. We talked about this a couple of days ago on the show, and I was absolutely taken aback with the positive response on this. I think it's a testament to Candy being so loved in this community. We were absolutely bombarded with messages.

A friend of ours, I absolutely love this person. Betsy Nugent, I see her like five or six times a week over at the Borset. It was just beaming with joy with this news. I like to brag about Betsy. The most fundamentally sound forehand in the Charlottesville and Central Virginia community is Betsy's over the tennis courts at the Borset. Why don't we welcome Candy to the program?

First, thank you for joining us. Happy to be here. It's our pleasure to have you on the show. And then before we talk about the business, maybe an introduction for you and what this community means to you, how long you've been in this community? what golf means to you.

Because I got, we're lucky to have you in Charlottesville and Almore on Central Virginia. I sincerely mean that. Well, thank you. Thank you. Well, I'm a local girl. I'm not going to tell you how long I've been here because then I'm going to tell you my age, but I was born and raised here in Charlottesville. My dad came here to play football and he stayed and raised our family.

And I've been here ever since. It's a funny, it's kind of a story. of how I got into golf. I was big into horseback riding and then developed bad allergies at 11 and had to give it up. And my dad was a golfer and said, I'm going to take you to play golf and the rest is history. I've been playing every since. Loved it, fell in love with it. And, you know, I love Charlottesville and it's the only place I want to run my business. The only time I was out of Charlottesville is when I was playing professionally. I was in Florida for the winter months for obvious reasons, but Charleston's home and we'll always be home. Tell us about the indoor swing studio, Ivy Square Shopping Center with a target date of sometime in

November for an opening. Yes, it looks like everything's going well, that we should get open that first week of November, to the point I have my schedule open for that week, so hopefully it's all going to come together. Just very excited. It's a great location for me. For me, golf is not only my job, my career, but it's what I love. And I want other golfers, kids, all ages, to experience the game of golf,

because it is a sport you can play for a lifetime. So not only is it my business, I want to get back to the community as much as I can as well. So the comments that are coming in, questions for candy, put them in the feet, I'll relay. I'm live on air. This is a good one. This is from an Ivy family, an Ivy mom. She says, where an Ivy Square will you be? And she's extremely excited for your opening.

So I am next to the yoga studio. Okay. So I am on the top level there. I'm not on the back side. I'm on the front side across from the taller building. So I'll be right next to the yoga studio. I'm put in perspective for the viewers and listeners. Why Ivy Square?

Because I think it's an absolute genius move. Well, it's close to a lot of my clients. are in Charlottesville, and it's close to some of the other clubs in town where I have clients, and it's close to the university. It's easy to get to off of 64, which was important to me. I have golfers I teach from Richmond, and obviously over the mountain where I've been the last six years, I think. So it's really easy to get to from wherever you are. She is very humble all to her own horn here. I think it's an absolute genius move

because it's close to everything. It's next to the bypass. It's next to the interstate. It's on that stretch from the Lewis Mountain neighborhood to the 240-250 split where you have a massive population of golfers. It's next to Birdwood. It's next to the Parth Recourse.

It's by Farmington. It's by St. Anne's. It's on that ivy stretch. I cannot think of a better location for what you're trying to do in golf in all of Charleston, Almaro County. Like, I sincerely, sincerely mean that. It would either be Ivy Square or the University Shopping Center right next to it.

And I don't think the University Shopping Center has the footprint or the size for what you're trying to do inside. Ivy Square is the only place that I think has it. How many square feet are you leasing? What's the height? And if you could maybe give us like a, you know, we're both sports fans, give us like the play-by-play of your build-out. Yes. So that's one thing I was looking for. I was looking for about 2,000 square feet, and that's what that has.

Very high ceilings. The building, really, the reason I can get open so quickly, I take over October 1st. The reason I can get open so quickly is it's move-in ready for me, literally move-in ready. The ceilings are high. It's great. The kind of lighting I need for simulators and what I want to do. there. It's just, it just all worked out. You know, I'm, I'm believing faith and it just all worked out. I used Benton Downer to help me find my place. And he said, you know, I think I have the

perfect place. Somebody wants out early, and I just found out yesterday. So it's kind of like faith that it just all worked out. It's got, you can be seven foot tall and swing a golf club in there, so you won't be worried about that at all. Great. The thing I'm probably most excited about is the putting green. I've ordered a putting green from Pro Putt, which is the leading putting green company in the country for universities, tour pros, everyone. And so I've ordered a large putting green. It's actually going to have six holes on it, standard size holes. I don't like the short cups for practicing. So standard size holes with a two and a half inch fall. So there will be break. We can practice breaking. We'll be able to practice whatever you need.

And it also is accessible for chipping. So we're just going to have it all. You know, I'm all about just being able to coach the total player. We talked about this on the phone. How coaching, instruction with golf is easier inside and even easier with visuals where you can coach and you have some kind of display in front of your student that's watching display while hearing from you so they can see, you know, how the club face is, you know, at impact or how the club looks through the swing zone. We're all visual learners and I think as we've become more like mesmerized or, you know, addicted to these screens, it's become even more important to have screens with learning and teaching.

Can you put that in perspective for the viewers and listeners? Yes, so I recently started using more simulator indoors where I was prior at Orchard Creek in Waynesboro, and I realized that my students were learning very quickly, and they ended up wanting to go more inside so they could see. The only negative about being indoor is that if you overload and over teach. My philosophy of teaching, I'm very fundamental based, very keep it simple base, and I feel like I work on one or two things at a time, and at the end of the day,

what our club face is doing is what creates the direction of the golf shop. So we have to be able to control the club face, and there's no way better to see what your club face is doing than on the foresight sports. launch monitor, which is what I'll be using. Yeah, I can tell people to do stuff all day, but if they can't see it,

they don't believe all the time what you're telling them. And I can't see what their club base is doing, even though I've been doing it a long time, and I feel like my eyes are really good at seeing club base, but there's nothing like seeing it on a launch monitor. And players just learn so fast. I mean, there's a reason that the Tauru pros all have one in their house, and that's what they do all winter during the off season.

Is they're on their launch model? Well, and why I also think this is genius is you've basically took an unpredictable element of your business out of the equation with weather. Yes. Put that in perspective here because, you know, one of the things we love about living here is the seasonality, but one of the things that's challenging about any outdoor sports, parents, we all know this with kids in sports, is when it rains, when it pours, when it's cold, when it's hot, when it's, you know, whatever.

Sometimes that impacts not just performance, but frankly, participation and being able to get out there and actually play. But with your scenario, you've removed that element. Absolutely. And that's one of the main reasons. I realized this was a great year to be indoors because we started out with a lot of ice earlier in the year in cold weather through the winter.

And then we went into a nice spring. and then we went into a super hot early part of the summer where basically six weeks, it was very limited for teaching outdoors. And then now we have been in the rainy season, and I'm like counting up all the days that I wouldn't have been able to teach if I was outdoors. So it's definitely much better from a climate control. You're not out there in the wind blowing you all around, trying to learn to swing the golf club. You're not out there when it's super hot. So it's definitely the future of golf, I believe. Well, you know, from a macro standpoint, you're absolutely right.

I mean, is it Tiger and Rory that launched the indoor tour? Yes. The simulator tour? They did. And it's awesome. It is. It's like I found myself watching the matches on TV when it's a national television. I think it's absolutely awesome.

And everywhere you look, I mean, you're at the Borset, Borset simulators booked all the time. Yeah. Yeah. It's an absolute no-brainer. And you know what? I even played on a simulator with my father-in-law and my wife, we played 18 holes, and we did the 18 holes on the simulator in like 45 minutes.

Yes. And we were just like chilling, hanging out, like not even like rushing to the, you know, the next shot we were talking. Sometimes I don't have, and I love being outside, and I love the golf courses around here. Right. But sometimes I don't have five hours. That's right.

To hit, you know, 81. I know I would like for it to be lower. I'm 81 shots. Right? I don't have five hours, you know? Put that in perspective for the viewers and listeners, the efficiency, the time, and you still get the enjoyment. You know, it's true.

One of the things I was a little bit concerned about was given playing lessons on the golf course. And I do have some agreements with golf clubs in the area. but yesterday I went to a home. I called it a home visit of one of my students that has a simulator at home. And I went there and he goes, I want to play. And I said, perfect. I've been trying to figure out how this is going to work. And yesterday it proved it was awesome because he was in a bunker.

I could show him how to get the right setup in the bunker to be able to hit a clean shot. He's chipping. He's pitching. these you know putting course management is huge and there's no better way place to teach course management than on a simulator because you have the hole there you have all the yardages you have everything so I just think I just think the only negative to it is if some if a golfer comes into a simulator and they're looking at all the numbers and they're overwhelmed with all the numbers and they're reading on

they get in their head you know It gets in their head and it's too much information. So it's my job to manage the information for my students. One of the thing I'm going to have is I'm going to have a lot of different programs with practicing with me, you know, group instruction, watching these players practice. And again, I'm still managing the numbers. Like I have a putting, it's like a putting simulator in a way, but you see what the putterhead's doing,

but it's cappedo out of Europe, and it's a phenomenal program. But again, it's information I need to maintain, so they're not over-trying everything. But when they leave, for those golfers that have simulators, I will give them the parameters I want them to look at and work on, and let's accomplish this and then go to that one step at a time. I love it.

I love it. Comments are coming in for you, and put comments for Candy in the feed. I'll relay it live on air. This one is from Patricia Spicer Napoleon, and she says, Candy has made such an incredibly positive impact on the lives of the youth in our community.

My own nephew has benefited from her exceptional mentoring. And there's an abundance of comments like this on the feed. Multiple people are saying, welcome home. That was the mention that Betsy had is welcome back. put into perspective like the coming back to Charlottesville because you were was it orchard orchard creek orchard creek so you're returning home yes this is like a full circle story yes it is definitely home for me and i mean it just means the world to me to be back home this is where you know i had a lot of people from charlottesville that was coming to see me across the mountain and i certainly

appreciated all of that but you know now i'm back home closer for everyone. And I mean, I just love Charlottesville. I mean, Charlottesville's been so good to me. The people in Charlottesville have supported me from the days of playing tournaments at 11, 12, 13 years old all the way through. I mean, even when I played on the Curtis Cup team,

we had people that came from Charlottesville to watch me play. So, I mean, my heart is in Charlottesville. That is for sure. And I appreciate the support I've had throughout my entire life. I mean, it's been, it's just kind of overwhelming and, gosh, I just can't really say what it means. How about this question for you?

Comments continue to come in, Candy. Can she offer some insight into the economics or the price points offered? Is this membership? Can I come in during the day? Do I have to be a student? Can we bring groups to play? So it will not be a membership facility. It will be a teaching and coaching facility.

If you are a student, yes, you will be able to come in and play in practice, but it will not be open to, I mean, it's open to everyone to come in. The price points are going to be kind of where the rest of Charlottesville is price point-wise. I'm not going to be low. I have to make a living and I'm not going to be the highest either. either. So I want to give back to Charlottesville. Junior golfers do get discounted rates. As everybody has mentioned, junior golf is very special to me. I've had kids that I've started that are now bringing their children to me to teach. And, you know, it's just, that's what I want to keep growing. I want to keep growing junior golf. I want to keep,

You know, I've had over 70 kids now go play in college and scholarships. And, you know, I'm helping families that way. That's important to me. I just had a kid that committed to William and Mary recently. And, you know, they're just – I just was up at Penn State actually watching one of my kids play that's playing for Richmond. But the head coach at Penn State now is one of my junior golfers. And the coach at Richmond, I had worked with her some here at UVA. So it's just full circle, you know, what, and I want to continue doing that.

I mean, I want to continue helping kids because it's a sport they can play for a lifetime. They can play it in business. They can play it in everything they do. It's, it's, it's, it's, what you're doing is awesome. It's, it also continues the trend locally in Charlottesville of space, uh, continuing to be repurposed for experiential. There's a lot of retail. We saw this with also a friend of the program, Colleen at Seville Smash, with the pickleball facility. Also front of the program, Brent Lillard with his jihitsu studio. Also friend of the program, Dr. Daniel Halpert, with Coco's Adventure

Central, the indoor entertainment facility. With you, a lot of like space. Now, yours and your scenario was previously yoga, so it was experiential, but we're seeing a lot of landlords, position what is otherwise a, you know, initially intended for retail into experiential, which I think is great. I'm curious of what it was like to deal with the University of Virginia, because the University of Virginia is the landlord here, right? Yes. Yeah.

What was that like? You know what? They were phenomenal. Okay. And they have been phenomenal every step of the way. Okay. I have to say it's the first time that I've gone into lease in a space like this. I was at Old Trail at one point where I owned my own business there before I went to Wainsboro.

And so this is the first time that I've really leased a space, and they've been so helpful every step of the way. I mean, I can pick up the phone and call them and say, hey, what do I have to do here? And so, you know, my kids tease me. I'm a big-time rules follower. So, you know, I've been a little paranoid about going through this and doing something wrong or something. So, but they've been phenomenal to work with. Unbelievable. That's awesome.

I've been very happy. And that's coming from a tar heel. That's awesome. That's awesome, Candy. Questions or, more questions are coming in here. Can we find her online and how do we sign up our kids for coaching with Candy? So they can find me online. It's Candycomergolf.com.

and I'm hoping to have the schedule completed here in the next couple weeks, so you'll be able to find all of that online to sign up. You can always reach out to me by phone. If you have questions, as I realize a lot of people are going to have questions, you can always reach out to me by phone as well. This is an interesting question. Well, can other coaches coach at her swing studio in case her schedule is full and they're wishing you nothing but the success with your new business.

So right now it will just be me. If I grow enough, yes, I would consider that. What I have found in the past is I've had some great assistance in the past that their book wasn't filling up enough and people were waiting for me. So then I had a problem, you know, I felt bad having an assistant and their book not filling up. So I will, I hope that happens. That would be awesome.

But I have to make sure that person is successful. What is your, this is a question for me. We're both business owners. What's your schedule like? And, you know, like when you and I, we're fortunate and that our passions are our professions, so we don't mind working like odd hours, around the clock weekends.

It's just the nature of being a business owner. And I always ask, like, fellow business owners, what's that schedule like? in part where like I might have a little bit of ammunition with my better half when she's like, you're working on the weekends here. I'm like, we're all doing this here. Can you give a glimpse to the viewers and listeners of what it's like to be kind of an entrepreneur and how it's around the clock?

Yeah, it absolutely is. I mean, I take calls all the time. I have kids that are playing tournaments. I have adults that are playing tournaments and they call. I've got to talk to them. I do online lessons or kids that are away. out of the area I coach, I got to be able to look at their swings online

and see what's going on and be able to get back to them. So I would say I'm very strong with communication and getting back, but yes, my kids will tell you, my son told me the other day, matter of fact, he said, mom, you're just working all the time. You need to take a break. And I said, no, I got stuff I got to get done.

We got to get open. Yeah. And so, so tech. Technically, my days off are supposed to be Sunday and Monday. Okay. But if I have people that want lessons and they can't get in, I am known for coming in and teaching. Yeah. So Mondays I try to keep, I do try to take one day off a week, and that would generally be Monday.

But I will come in a Sunday afternoon after church if I absolutely, if there's a waiting list, or if I have a player that needs help, that's getting ready for a tournament or something like that. So, yes, I work a lot of hours. I don't want to add them up because I know it's way too many. But I also look at this as not really a job because I love it. I love what I do and it makes me happy. And so it's not really a job for me.

It's what I love, which hence, you know, later in life, I'm opening a different business and going to continue to do it. So, yeah, so, yeah, I work a lot. But I love it. It's not work. I feel the same way. I feel absolutely the same way. Passion, your profession, you won't work a day in your life.

A few more questions for you. Comments continue to come in for candy. Here's a good one. What's your favorite golf course in the area or favorite few golf courses? Because she's probably not going to just answer one. And then what's her favorite hole in the area and the toughest hole? in the area. Oh, boy. Well, my favorite golf course is going to be the Cascades at the homestead. Okay. The upper Cascades. And I say that for my favorite golf course ever. Really? Yes. Wow. And you've

played a lot. I played a lot of golf courses. Right. But it's just a great golf course and it's a great spot and we're lucky to have it in Virginia. As far as the area, you know, we're fortunate to have a lot of really good golf courses in this area and they all have something good about them. The toughest hole, gosh, I would probably say number 10 at Farmington because growing up that was my nemesis that I would get to number 10 and it was a long, part three and that was always a really tough hole for me it looks like it's a pretty straightforward part three but you know do you go by memories on what you like and what you don't like so I would say probably number 10 at Farmington just because

it's it's got bad memories yeah yeah and you highlighted this like I've been here 26 years you've been here your whole life we have an abundance of quality golf here we really do we are so lucky. I grew up in Williamsburg in Kingsmill and I remember my house was on a cul-de-sac, my parents' house where we grew up. My brother and I would walk across the street of the cul-de-sac sneak through our neighbors two yards and we would be on the fairway of number eight on the plantation. So we have this mini loop that we would play after school where we would basically bring a couple of clubs in our hands and we'd take a nine iron from the

fairway at the plantation number eight, which was a par five, then played the par three number nine. Then we'd cut across the street, I think, and go back to six and go six, seven, play full eight, and make it in time for dinner. And it was amazing growing up there because you had the river, you had the par three, you had the woods. We could ride our bikes. There's always something to do. Charlottesville and Central Virginia, extremely similar with an abundance.

And sometimes I think we'd take it for granted. because there's not a lot of communities. There's communities out there, but there's not a lot that have the options we have and at the price points we have. I played Meadow Creek the other day. Metal Creek is in fantastic shape. I mean, so lucky to have Meadow Creek here.

Give us some insight onto this. So Trune, I think, came in and took over managing Meadow Creek. And they've done a phenomenal job. That's where I first learned to play golf. Okay. Was at Meadow Creek. And I think it's important that we have, have these courses that people can afford to play.

And that's important to me. It's like, you know, I have scholarships for kids. I raise money for scholarships for kids that can't afford lessons. So, you know, it's just, I think golf is an expensive sport, and we have to have a way to introduce it to everyone is my philosophy. So I think that Meadow Creek fills that niche in a nice way, but it's so crowded, it's hard to get on. We could use another course like that in the area that's kind of public, that's a little lower rate that would be a little easier for people to get on. But it's a good problem to have.

But yeah, we do. We're very fortunate to have a lot of really good golf courses for all levels of players. I mean, if you think, and you know this better than anybody, if you think about it, getting on a golf course on a weekend, especially a busy weekend locally, it's hard. Yes. Like getting on Birdwood, extremely hard. Yes. Farmington, extremely hard. Meadow Creek, extremely. Spring Creek, you know, like, you can get on Glemore.

You can get on Kesswick if you, you know, have a way to get on there to play. Right. You know, not everybody does. But, like, it's, there's a lot of golfers here. Yeah. And there's a lot of people visiting who. want to play golf here because a lot of these events, maybe that's what's causing in, you know, a lot of the, I don't want to call it congestion, but the participation.

Right, right. We have a lot of private clubs in the area. Yeah. So that eliminates a lot of golfers unless you have a friend or something like that. You know, and I think as much as we say, you know, we lost Swannanoa, which was an outlet for low-cost golf. and it was beautiful up there. So I think, you know, there would be room for a little bit more affordability in the area. But, you know, golf is, it is what it is.

It is what it is. It is tough to build a golf course. Absolutely. All right, we'll close with this. You are amazing. Well, thank you. Yeah. How about the one more time?

The who what, when, where, why. You've got an indoor swing studio. November, Ivey Square Shopping Center. or anything else we're missing where we can find you. Target opening date, we understand it's fluid. It's going to be November 3rd. Okay. People have booked for November 3rd.

Okay. So you know my personality. It'll be, talk about working day and night. It's really not that hard for us to get it set up because already on the simulators. I have the, you know, the people scheduled to bring them in. I have the electronics guy and I have the putting green. So we will be ready to go. It might not be beautiful.

at first, but it will be ready to go and there's not a lot you have to do to get it up and running, honestly. I got the internet scheduled this morning, so that was huge. Nice. Because I have to have that. You need that. That's critical.

So, hopefully they'll come through. Trust me, I know with what we're doing here at 27 platforms, I know how important the internet is. Getting the internet is, that's no easy task to get the tech out. You are awesome. Thank you. Seriously, thank you for your time.

Yeah, I appreciate you having me. It's absolutely our pleasure. We wish you the best. I think you're going to have incredible success where you're at and with this idea. Guys, she is Candy Commer. I'm on her website right now. Candy Comer Golf, I think, is extremely well done. And it looks like you even have your booking tab signed up right now with book early in November.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our pleasure. Judah, if you want to put me on a one shot here, That's guys Candy Comer of a Candy Comer Golf, and you can find her online at Candycomergolf.com. She is absolutely awesome. Her family is awesome.

And I think she's going to have incredible success at Ivy Square Shopping Center next to Foods of All Nations over there. It's the Friday edition of the show. I have print, radio, and television that's watching us now. I encourage them to do some digging and some reporting on what's going on at the Dewberry, because I think that's a story. We all need to know. See you, Candy. Have a good one. Bye. And then I'll close the program with a little bit of news.

We have Almaro County School Board selection. David Storm has been picked as the at-large fill-in for Allison Spillman who quit. My hope is for David Storm, who's replacing Allison Spillman on the school board in the at-large seat, to bring a voice that is willing to paper the trail and be vocal, even if that means being in the voting block that has no chance of winning a vote. We need to paper the trail and have voices of dissent, the Amar County School Board. That's also Jim Dillon Beck. You need to kind of follow that.

I mean, that was what you campaigned on Jim Dillenbeck, being a voice of accountability. For Candy Comer, for Judah Wickhauer, this is The I Love Seville Show. We hope you have a good weekend. We'll see you guys on Monday. So long, everybody.