The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Meet Tim Hess, Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes; Intro CVille, AlbCo & Central VA To Oak Valley

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Video Of UVA’s North Fork Research Park 562 Acres, 3.7M SQF, 628K People Within 60 Min Hiking Trails (3 Miles), Stocked Fishing Pond, Gym Meet Tim Hess, Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes How Long Has Tim Lived Here? How Has It Changed? Intro CVille, AlbCo & Central VA To Oak Valley Former UVA Health Leaders Named In Federal Lawsuit If You Need CVille Office Space, Contact Jerry Miller Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Tim Hess, Head of Design & Sales at Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes, 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. Thank you kindly for joining us in our studio from a fantastic location in downtown Charlottesville. We are right off the downtown mall, a mall that's going to celebrate its 50-year anniversary in a couple months from now. 2026, the year, is the 50-year anniversary of a pedestrian mall. that has not just significance in Charlottesville, not just significance in Central Virginia or the Commonwealth,

but countrywide significance. There are very few pedestrian malls like the one we have in downtown Charlestville. Our guests, when we welcome him, Tim Hess, a friend of the program, his firm, his family, excited to contribute to that 50-year downtown mall anniversary. Oak Valley Custom Heartscapes is a partner of the I Love Seaville show. They have a fabulous office on the downtown mall, and their team is excited to be a part of this anniversary. We'll spend about 20 minutes, 25 minutes with Tim Hasse,

a guy who's lived in this community for nearly 20 years, 17 to be exact, and he's seen Charlottesville change tremendously in those 17 years, as have I. I've been here, 25 years myself, started as a first year student at the University of Virginia, went through a fantastic period of being a bachelor and closing down watering holes, Then an even better period, I know she's watching right now, of meeting my wife and having two fabulous children. So Charlottesville's a part of me. It's part of my heart. It's where I kind of matured from college student most of the times matured into a dad and a parent and a husband.

Before we get to Tim, I do want to give some props to Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes. They have a fantastic design center, fantastic office on the downtown mall. Anything hardscape related at your house, this is the firm. call they can customize it they can walk you through a plan they take what seems complicated and make it strategic through fantastic communications through ethics and through proof of performance oak valley custom hardscapes your choice in charlesville for anything hardscape related at your at your house ladies a gentleman before we welcome tim to the program we touched on this briefly yesterday North Fork and Northern Alamaro County is just unbelievable, guys.

563 acres, ladies and gentlemen, 200 of those acres preserved as open space. We have 3.7 million square feet of office space, a fully master plan, mixed-use development, a home of an array of businesses, nonprofits, and startups. We've heard North Fork, we've heard Rivana Station, Rivana Futures. We've heard of this biotechnology, biotech sector, and this defense sector that's in northern Almaro County and this economic driver for Almore County, city of Charlottesville, in the central Virginia region. But it really hasn't been until I did a boatload of research, thanks to friend of the program,

Neil Williamson, the president of the Free Enterprise Forum, that I realized the magnitude and significance of North Fork. And over the last 24 hours, while doing that research, I've come across some video content that I'm going to relay to you with audio off over there, Judah, and I'll talk over, leave my mic on when you play that video, and I'll talk over it. And I want you guys to see what the University of Virginia is doing in Al Morrow County, what biotechnology is doing in Amarro County, what the defense sector is doing in Almaro County, and how incredibly primed our community is for massive innovation and change. This is going to be the start of something special. Remember, AstraZeneca comes online in 2029, the $4.5 billion publicly traded company, they're going to

invest $4.5 billion into a facility in northern Amar County. It comes online, that $4.5 billion facility and Northern Almorel at the same time the Paul Manning Biotech Institute comes online on Fontaine Avenue. So from now until 2029, I equated almost into that period of time where Thomas Jefferson was belling up

to a bar maybe around Monticello somewhere and talking about launching the University of Virginia. It's that kind of significance. Do we have that video ready to go, J-Dubs? You play that video of North Fork and you viewers and listeners look at the screen

while I talk over the video and offer you some commentary of what you're seeing. Cue that video up in three, two, one. 563 acres at North Fork, folks. This is a mission to serve as a catalyst for the creation of research and business collaboration between the University of Virginia and the public and private sectors

benefiting the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Central Virginia region, and the nation as a whole. 3.7 million square feet of office space here, folks. 628,000 people within a 60-minute drive. This is a mixed-use development that has planned every detail, including a grocery, food, and beverage option from Foods of All Nations, a full-service gymnasium, a stocked fishing pond.

I mean, look at the screen. Look at what you're seeing here. Hiking trails three miles long, hiking and walking. The economic upside here for Almore County and for the region is significant. And remember, Glenn Yonkin this past Friday, said we will have a biotechnology beltway that connects Rockingham County to Richmond, Virginia with the engine driving that beltway, Al Morrow County, absolutely monumental what's happening and something that should not be underestimated in the least. They have an autonomous shuttle that's running throughout North Fork, ladies and gentlemen, legitimately an autonomous shuttle. The upside for startups, the upside for the supply chain on biotechnology,

on innovation, on technology of any kind, is absolutely noteworthy, and one of national recognition. You have 20,000 square feet of amenity space at Northfolk. You can drink coffee at coffee shops at North Fork. You can take hit classes, stroll along walking and hiking trails, and this is just the beginning. We're in the second inning of a nine-inning ball game. absolutely fantastic how much time left on that we cleared it thank you just an absolutely significant project ladies and gentlemen print radio and television watching the program this is something that needs to be highlighted even more jinny who thank you for the retweet supervisors in almore county orange county and nelson watching one city counselor watching the program as we speak right now

we will continue to discuss this impact throughout the week on the i love seville show as we are still digesting the news of Trans-Zeneca and its significance, investing $4.5 billion into Almaro County, while publicly traded Eli Lilly invests $5 billion into Goochland County. Do you see what's happened? You have nearly $10 billion of bookend investment with Charlottesville and Almaro County right in between Goochland and that Almaro Green County line. Just a crazy story, a story of national significance. Judah, let's go to the studio camera and then a two shot as we welcome. Welcome. Tim Hess to the program. And Tim, I'm excited to chat with you. I'm excited to discuss the evolution of Charlottesville and your nearly 20 years of living in this community. I find it unrecognizable from when I first got here. I will ask you that question. Before we go further, however, introduce yourself to the viewers and listeners. Well, Jerry, happy to be here. Thank you. And very excited to be here as well on talking with you. So, yeah, so I've been in the Charlottesville.

region for almost 20 years now, moved down from Ohio about that long ago. And I've been in the green industry pretty much my entire life. So my parents moved down here about 23, 24 years ago. And so that's kind of what was the driver to kind of move to the area. And so I've worked for some very nice firms in and around the greater central Virginia area through the years here. And I got courted here to Oak Valley by an old college. colleague of mine, Bruce Clay, who's the former owner who has since retired, but we are kind of expanding under new ownership with Warren Turner at the helm. And yeah, we're expanding here into the Charlottesville market. And we're excited to be here. And downtown Charlottesville is where we want to be with the history of the downtown mall being in landscape architecture, you know, Lawrence Halperin design. It's obviously a hardscape as well and in a showcase for pavers themselves. So, you know, we felt that was woven into the fabric of the community and we could help, you know, spread that design prowess here into the Charlottesville region as well. So happy to be here.

But, yeah, yeah, been here a while. And, you know, out and about, my wife and I, Suzanne, she works for the University of Virginia Community Credit Union. It has been down here about the same time as you, 25 years. So we try to get out and about in the community quite a bit. involved in some organizations in and around town too, like the Building Goodness Foundation and the Art of the Piedmont and the Cystic Phibrosis Foundation, things like that.

So you might see us out at a fundraiser here and there from time to time as well. I love it. You're getting props from a lot of people. John Blair giving you some love right now. You're getting love on Facebook right now from Brad Armstrong, all the way, I believe, from Brian Ohio,

gives Tim Hess the big what-up. Tim has doing a great job already. Bill McChesney, Conan Owen, Conan Owen, the owner of Sir Speedy of Central Virginia, he's watching the program. Talk to us about the evolution of Charlottesville from your standpoint, and I definitely want to highlight the downtown mall, because the significance of a pedestrian downtown mall is not just one of Central Virginia noteworthiness. This is national noteworthiness, especially as we headed to the 50-year anniversary next year,

in particular with your office now on the mall here. But first, the evolution of what you've seen in this community with nearly 20 years of living within it. Yeah, Charlottesville has changed quite a bit. You know, obviously a lot of growth in and around the area and the region. You know, we have seen kind of downtown Charlottesville, you know, ebb and flow, I feel. You know, when I first moved down here, the restaurant scene was pretty vibrant. That has kind of changed a little bit recently. You know, a lot of businesses have kind of come and gone.

There's been a lot of evolution of, I think, what the community views the downtown mall as and what its purpose is. We can't deny, you know, the events that happened in 2017 on the downtown mall and how that is impacted. And I think really what I see here, Jerry, is a resurgence that's starting to happen, some gained interest. We need our urban cores wherever they are. And for Charlottesville, this is a really unique and special place. There are only two public pedestrian malls left. in the country, and this being one of them. And designed by a world-renowned landscape architect,

Lawrence Halprin, back in the 70s, his firm out of San Francisco really took a communal aspect of interviewing different people throughout the community and getting their input on the design of the mall, what they wanted to see. And the mall, since that point in 1976, has evolved. It has changed. It has grown significantly.

We now have the amphitheater down at the end of the mall that wasn't there in the original design. We have some more corridor segments that have expanded. And it really has, you know, changed, I think, what the community's vision, you know, initially it was met with resistance. You know, people did not want to close them all off. They wanted traffic in there. And we see that success, and it's continuing draw for not just the community, but for a lot of visitors. We have a great, great tourism bureau here.

that really draws a lot of people in this area. And the first thing they talk about when I've had visitors here in the area is, you know, we got to go to the downtown mall. We want to see what this is about, you know, in lieu of also Monticello and all the history of UVA and everything like that. But, you know, this is really a magnet, not only for businesses and the community, but for the greater tourism folks around the world.

You know, we have a very worldly university here that draws a lot of international people. people. I see a lot of different international people on the downtown mall. So it just has that vibe and that draw. And I'm hopeful that with this 50th anniversary and us being a small part of kind of re-injecting a business in the downtown that we see more growth happening and more energy behind that as that movement starts to happen. So with the film festival coming up here, what Jodi Kabasa and those guys do, you know, for UVA arts, I think that is a big pull and a big draw. here and it you know it's it's always a fun time in the fall here to see all the vibrancy happening all the people coming down and the reinvestment in our restaurants and our hotels and different businesses down here and so you know it's it's ebden float you know we've had some downtime downturns in the downtown mall scene and you know I know people talk a lot about different things uh you know homelessness and and crime and you know quite frankly I don't see a whole lot of

it I mean there are always issues in every major city I was just up in Washington, D.C. and you have those issues everywhere you go, but I think they're much smaller in the problems. I try to focus more on the positives. I think we've had some great established businesses down here for a really long time. We've got, you know, a great cultural scene downtown as well that draws a lot of people. I think what we just need to do is grow and expand upon that. So we're happy to be a small part of that. Tim Hess is crushing it right now. Oak Valley Custom hardscapes, it's representing. How do you, tough question for you?

How do you make them all better? You know, I think... You're here all the time. I am here all the time. And having moved from Cincinnati, Ohio, I was part of, one of the firms that I worked with was part of the Fountain Square resurgence. So the main plaza in downtown Cincinnati, if you are WKRP fans in Cincinnati, you might notice it on the opening credits there, the fountain and everything.

And they kind of went through a little bit of a transition. And so the thing that I see successful with these urban core areas that have these public spaces that, you know, are resurging in and around the country as I visit them, is really programming. I think we could do more in terms of programming. We have a great amphitheater at the end of the mall that Fridays After Five is a popular event. I'd like to see more of those type of events, you know, maybe a family movie night, things like that. They do these different programmatic things to draw people downtown. You know, it's a lot to ask just individual business owners alone to kind of create a vibe and draw people to their area. I think the city can be a partner through a private and public partnership.

3CDC is a big one in Cincinnati that is a public private partnership that helps, you know, businesses as well as the public good, But to get some of those more pragmatic things that draw people down here and get people engaged and interested. You know, the Christmas tree lighting that's going to be happening here that is so popular. And that's just one event. But I think we could grow and expand upon those so that there are even more things that folks and families feel comfortable coming down to the downtown mall and engaging in. Vanessa Parkhill watching the program in Ehrlichville, Janice Boyce Trevillian watching the show. A lot of folks in Richmond and Shortpump and Midlothian watching. watching the show, I see Louisa, Orange, Green, and Crozze, the Ivy Area on the program as well.

Bill McChesney has this comment. Harry Omanski of the Young Ben Shop kept the west end of Main Street open from 2nd Street West for years. Absolutely right, Bill McChesney. I've been here 25 years. You've been here nearly 20 years. We call Charlottesville home. We're proud to call Charlottesville home. You said it best, and you're Taylor made for this, your personality.

your gift for gab, ebbs and flows for downtown Charlottesville, I think it's on the upside. I continue to think it's on the upside. For the 50-year anniversary, that's upcoming, I think the city is trying to figure out a hand-up solution for the houseless that are downtown. We have that $6.2 million shelter that's on the cusp of being purchased off the bypass. One of the things, and that's why I'm so impressed with Oak Valley, one of the things that's going to help revitalize LaMalle is the injection of business to downtown Charlottesville that not only creates the foot traffic for team members, but for clients, for lunch, for breakfast, for happy hour, for dinner, for concerts, all the above. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, we're excited.

You know, we're just opening up our design center down here, but that's the goal. That's One of the things that drew us to the space is that we want to bring clients down here. We want them to engage in the downtown environment, and it's centralized. You know, we have clientele all around, you know, the surrounding area in central Virginia. And so it's a central point that people can come to. It's convenient and, you know, really showcase what we can do for them, but also, you know, take in the culture of the city as well as they're down here. So, you know, I think that's the added benefit of reinvestment into your urban core, you know, and that's something, not knocking anything around, you know, surrounding areas, but, you know, a strip and well might not be able to provide that cultural experience and just, you know, that kind of wow factor when you're bringing clientele down here. That's why a lot of landscape architecture, architecture firms, you know, urban planners are down here. That's where they want to be.

And there is a networking effect with that as well. So, you know, all the other businesses down here, we, you know, do business to business. And that is just part of, you know, location and proximity. And I think that's some of the hidden benefits that a lot of people don't take into account when they're thinking about, you know, different locations. You know, we kind of scoped out a few different locations, Jerry, before we chose where we did. And, you know, it just seemed like the right fit. And I think with all of the things coming up with the downtown mall, I fully agree with you. I think it's on a upswing here.

I think there's a lot of energy coming in here. There's more reinvestment happening. And I think we just need to build on that energy a little bit. I know there's naysayers out there. There always will be. Of course. But, you know, I think, you know, come down. If you haven't been down in five years or something like that, spend a Saturday afternoon, see what it's like.

you know, because I think you're going to be a little bit surprised as to what you might find. And so certainly in the businesses here that have stuck out like the men's and boys shop, like some of the other, you know, restaurants and things here, the Nook and everything. I mean, they've been around for a long time. They're not going anywhere. It's just building more momentum. And there's going to be newer businesses coming in and newer entertainment venues and things like that. So I think it's really an exciting time, you know, just seeing I was just over at the New Argentine.

Steakhouse the other night. How was that? I didn't have dinner, just had a cocktail, but it's a lovely scene. This is in the glass building? It is in the glass building. And so I think there's a lot of energy just starting off with. And you're kind of seeing it. COVID was hard for the restaurant industry, very hard.

And so I think it's encouraging to see some new players come on to the scene here. You know, Charlottesville is a foodie town, and that's what it's really known for. So that kind of excites me. And just, you know, a lot of that. energy coming in here. I think the more that we're getting a lot of newcomers into Charlottesville, you know, you and I now, unfortunately, probably the old-timers. Absolutely. We're the O.Gs. Absolutely. But I think you're getting a lot of people moving to the region and stuff. And, you know, first discovering this, you know, that's exciting. You know, you mentioned the AstraZeneca plan

and some of the outlined investors. That's going to bring a lot of housing, a lot of jobs here. a lot of people that are going, you know, residual income that they're going to want to spend somewhere. And I think Charlottesville in the downtown area is perfectly placed for that, you know, for that timeline. I think it's only going to be an added benefit for the city. You are a technician and an expert with hardscapes and with design and with execution. Give us the like the X's and O's of what you see technical wise with the downtown mall, one of two pedestrian downtown malls in the nation. Well, there's a lot of thought that goes into that design there.

And, you know, you get a group of designers in a room, Jerry, I'll be honest with, they're going to have about 150 different opinions. So my personal, you know, thoughts on it, and having studied Lawrence Halperin when I was in architecture school back in Ohio. Oh, yeah, yeah. When I was in landscape architecture school at Ohio State, the Ohio State University. There we go. You know, we studied, you know, you have to learn about,

history and landscape architecture and things like that. And so Holprin's whole approach was very, very holistic. And again, this was the early 70s. There was a lot of that kind of, you know, cultural hippie movement, if you will, a little bit left over. And he really took that holistic approach. Him and his team, it wasn't just him alone. There was a whole team of designers from Halperin and Associates.

And they were also involved in the, resurfacing of the downtown mall and some of the expansion pieces of that as well but um you know they really just took this whole approach of you know we need to make it accessible we need to make it easy for people to walk to and from and if you notice a lot of the gradients up and down the downtown mall there is actually some grades they're at a very gentle slope a lot of what he introduced to which was a little bit you know kind of revolutionary at the time are are things like injecting white noise. So we notice a lot of the fountains that are up and down the mall.

Planning large willow oak trees, you know, to provide shade canopy. And a lot of people were kind of against that. It's going to block our storefronts and things. And so a lot of those little things, the curb and gutter detail that runs up there. So it's not just a hard curb. You know, it's something very gentle so that people can roll a cart over it or walk right down it if they need to. A lot of those little details, the ratio of the brick.

pavers that they use is a custom brick paver. They had to recreate that when they redid them all years ago here, and that was a special mold that they had to do for that specific ratio of brick size there. A lot of different things, the herringbone pattern. People don't really think underfoot a paver pattern can affect kind of traffic flow, but it actually slows people down. And that was the intent that Halpern wanted to do. It's kind of slow people down. instead of rushing through, you know, a corridor. If we just had a straight concrete sidewalk, you know, you're just kind of get to point A to point B at the quickest.

It's more of take in meander a little bit. That's what the idea of the benches, the original benches that were placed all over. I'd love to see those come back, by the way, if the city's listening right now. But that was the idea to create a public gathering space so people can commute and enjoy each other's company. And I think we can get back

to that a little bit more. I think that's the idea there of bringing community together is the whole precipice of what that design was. And it started by bringing the community in on the design process. And that's kind of what I try to do in my design process with clients. You know, it might not be as large of a community, but I want to, you know, bring people in from their perspective. What is the functionality you're looking for in this space? What are you trying to accomplish here? What are your goals? What are you envisioning here a little bit more? It's very easy as a designer say, you know, I like this and I'll do this,

and here's your design and take it or leave it. We really try to take a little bit more of a holistic approach when we initiate with a design client. Cora Guthrie giving you some props from Ontario right now. We got Ontario in the house. I know. Well, my wife's family is from Northern Canada, so it's not surprising. giving you some love right now.

Viewers and listeners, put your comments in the feed, and we'll relay them live on air. Here's an interesting comment that's come from Ivy. I love the guest, Jerry. Ask him how he would improve the mall from a design, engineering, or hardscape standpoint. Well, you know, I think a couple small, immediate improvements, and I know it's very controversial with the business owners down here.

I think having thoroughfare crossovers after 2017 is problematic. Okay. So you say closed down, that would be second and four streets. Yeah, and I know the business community is probably going to backlash at me on that a little bit,

but, you know, we've had a young woman killed, unfortunately, in an unfortunate circumstance. But I see when cars are driving through there, especially we have a lot of out-of-towners. You know, we have a lot of visitors here. They don't really know how to navigate it. People on the mall don't know how to navigate it.

You know, I think that could be a new expansion of the pedestrian mall area to provide not only extra security, but just a little bit more peace of mind. We could still have loading and unloading zones for those businesses if needed. I think from a standpoint of what else could be added or changed with the downtown mall, I would like to see more of the public seating come back into the fold.

That was part of the original design. I know the city leases out a lot of restaurant space in the middle, but really that wasn't the original intent. I'm not opposed to that, but, you know, how are we laying that out? How are we programming some of those spaces in regard to the original design? Because, you know, that was really more of a communal space, not a privatized space in some of those cases. Not to say you can't have both. You know, I think in terms of programming, you know, and I've been to several cities,

you know, across the nation and up in Canada, too. A Dora district, an open container. Amen, brother. Seems so obvious. On the downtown mall. The infrastructure is pretty much there. Kind of goes back to those cross streets being problematic, but... He's talking designated outdoor refreshment area.

That's what Dora stands for. Basically, a portion of the mall that could be allocated where you could enjoy a beer, a wine, or a cocktail, buy it from a bar, and walk with your friends, by yourself, up and down the mall. It makes so much sense. And we could have designated hours of that. Yeah.

I think a lot of people are worried about crime and things like that. I don't see it in the cities that I visit that have done this. My hometown to Toledo, Ohio, where I'm from, starting an experiment program about five, six, seven years ago, and it has just been nothing but a success. And it's in and around a minor league ballpark and things like that. Families come down. You know, I think it's just the convenience of being able to,

you know, okay, let's grab a, you know, a wine, or a cocktail and just take a stroll. So I think that could be possibly something that differentiates the downtown mall from other areas, you know, around the county and things like that and makes it a little bit more unique. There are other ideas with that as well. I mean, Charlottesville has a uniqueness about it, you know, and they want to kind of keep it, you know, they say in Austin keep it weird, right?

Yeah. We like to keep it a little strange here in Charlottesville, too. And that's part of the character of place. When you're designing a space, that's the character of a space. that's the character of place that you're trying to encapsulate there. So I think recognizing that and building upon that a little bit can help as well. You're crushing it. You're crushing it.

Middleton, Ohio, about 35 miles north of Cincinnati, created the first Dora in Ohio history. And Middleton, Ohio, we talked about this on the I Love Seville show years ago, is absolutely reaping the incremental tax benefits of this designated outdoor refreshment area. You can find this on I Loveceville.com. In 2021, the Ohio Department of Commerce reported a 300% increase in active Duras across the state. The Middleton Dora is open seven days a week from noon to midnight, $1 charge for a bracelet that allows customers to drink, walk, and enjoy Middleton while patronizing locally owned businesses,

and it is just massively impacting the economy in safe and healthy ways while infusing this experiential, destinational mindset to come back downtown. Something needs to be, I love the words you use, programming. It's as much about perceived safety. It's as much about perceived parking, and we have plenty of parking here, folks.

This conundrum of not finding parking is just a myth. We have plenty of parking down here. But it's also about programming down here. I love your ideas. I love that Oak Valley has kind of planted their flag in downtown Charlottesville. I love that you're doing it right before the 50-year anniversary. So are we. It's absolutely amazing.

You're doing it on one of the most impressive heartscapes in the Commonwealth, if not the country, literally, not hyperbole, but literally. Put in perspective for the viewers and listeners, and many are giving you props. I'll relay that props here in a matter of moments, what you guys are doing at Oak Valley. Yeah. So, you know, we're working on lots of exciting projects. We're primarily residential-based design. We are a custom design-build firm. So, you know, we really, each one of our projects is pretty unique to one another. We're not kind of a rubber stamp, chucking a truck sort of thing or anything like that. So, you know, we design things like pool surrounds, installations, spas, outdoor kitchens, in addition to hardscapes, you know, retaining walls. things like that. We do softscapes as well, landscape designs. We will do some water features as well. So we're kind of the, if you would think of it, the outdoor general design build contractor. So if you work with a general contractor and a designer for your home, you know, when you're building a house, we kind of take that to the exterior environment. So we partner with a lot of different design firms as well, too.

So we'll build some of their ideas. But we do like to work with clients one-on-one, get their design vision. We try to work within a budget range that they're comfortable with as well. Sometimes that includes a phase project, so it might not be something we do all at one shot, but we can do it incrementally over a course of a few years. So we're really expanding our offering of services.

We have two dedicated crews just to the Charlottesville market alone right now, and so we have about five additional enrichment that we can pull from as well. You know, they've been operating in Richmond for about 15 years. We've had a lot of success there, partnering with some of the folks that we partner with. And so we just thought this was a right time to come here. And with my Charlottesville connections, our ownership felt that that was kind of an expanding area we could reach into

and, you know, hopefully bring our expertise here to Charlottesville as well. There's a lot of great companies in and around Charlottesville. We just want to be one of those that you can choose from as well. Cora Guthrie giving you props. Aaron Tupper says, Wowzer. Tim, you're a rock star. You got comments coming in from multiple countries, different states.

I'll get to local comments here in a matter of moments. Taylor Grubbs says you absolutely rule. Kara, who does a great job with Ting, she's watching the program right now. She says Tim Hess has the vision to recreate any space into a beautiful gathering area. And he's an awesome neighbor as well. giving you some props on the program. I am impressed by what you guys are doing

because I am impressed with you first. You have that gift of probably being able to make a lot of friends anywhere you go, likability, affability. You also are someone who follows through on what he wants to do and what the team wants to do. Sure. Fantastic communicator. And the heartscape is someone that has two young boys,

and a wife and is spending more time at home because we have a seven-year-old and a two-year-old, the time outside is precious. It's almost a sanity for us, especially with young kids being outside. So the value proposition of hardscape and the improvement of what it does to a house is not just monetary value, it's emotional value, quality of life value. You're absolutely right. A lot of folks, sometimes we'll begin a conversation when we're talking about what they're envisioning for their house. And sometimes we get people that say, you know, what's the, what's the resale value of this? What will it add to the value of my home? And I, there is, there is resale value and there's, you know, different information. You're in the real estate

business that, you know, agents use and things like that, that kind of return on investment that people are looking for. And, you know, I generally tell people, you know, it really matters to you the most. And the point that I make with them is, let's say it's a 30, 40% return on investment that you get an added value to your home. But to the next potential home buyer, let's just say

it's something like a swimming pool or a cottage garden. For them, that might be, you know, a hazard. Something they have small kids and they're definitely afraid of water. Or a cottage garden might look like a weed patch to the next person that's not into

gardening. So really when you're When you first initially, I don't care what you're designing, you know, it could be interior design. It could be designing a home or ancillary building at your home and your farm or whatever. You really want to think about that. What am I benefiting out of it? What am I going to use it for? Because that's really the intent here. If you're just doing it to try to add value, I think you're going to probably fall short a little bit on those goals.

So really, you need to start with your intent first. and what you're going to be using it for and how long you're going to be using it for. We saw a surge during COVID because everybody was stuck at home. They're not knowing what to do. They're not spending money on vacations. So let's reinvest in our homes.

And two-year backlog during those times of just getting things like swimming pools in or some of the projects we were working on. That's pretty unheard of. But people really were doing it for their purpose, just like you're saying. We want to extend our living room outside. We want to extend the living season

in the outdoors. And that's really where you want to start with. If that's what you're enjoying, I design a lot of outdoor kitchens, Jerry, and I tell people all the time, and these things can get pretty elaborate. You know, I mean, $30,000, $60,000 just for the kitchen alone.

And I really start the conversation with, how often do you like to cook? How often do you like to cook outside? Because that's going to drive maybe some of those appliances that we incorporate into that or what investment level you want to put into that. It's just like anything. Someone might value a BMW more.

Some might value a Chevy. Totally get it. I totally get it. This one comes in from Lauren and Ivy. Can he put into perspective the time, the process, and the cost of doing an outdoor hardscape in the backyard that may include kitchen, fire pit, and seating area? Sounds like someone's looking for a free estimate,

that's what it says right there um well you know i can put in you know sight on scene here you know that can very widely i'll be honest with you because each project is very unique there are three things that affect every project we work on and i i start with this conversation one is the site conditions you know the site that you have maybe it has a very steep grade and we have to do some retaining wall work if we're trying to do that that can affect a lot of things. Maybe there's a lot of trees in the area. Maybe we have to demo an existing space or an old structure or something like that. So those things are pretty static. The site is the site. We can't do much with that until we come up with a solution. The second is the size. And that's usually

dictated by things like functionality and things the client is kind of dictated. What do I want to do in the space? How many people am I entertaining? How much furniture do I want on the space? These are the things that people generally don't think a whole lot about until after the fact. And that's where we get kind of the buyer's remorse, if you will. The regret of, man, I wish I made it bigger or, gosh, this thing is way too big because it's just my wife and I and we didn't really need all the space. So it was kind of wasted money. I don't want to design something too large, but I don't want to design something too small. And we need to keep in mind the functionality and circulation. The third is the material selection. Lots of different materials we can choose from natural stone, travertine,

stone, brick, concrete pavers, stamp concrete, all kinds of different pallets of materials we can use. And that's generally dictated, you know, a lot to us by the client's preferences. And so those all affect what a project cost can be. So you need to kind of maybe pre-plan some of that. Most of my clients I work with, I try to get them to give me some feedback first. Before I even put not so much pencil to paper as much as I used to anymore, but before, before, I'd sit behind the CAD station, you know, and start working on their design because if they're thinking about those things a little bit more holistically, then we can tailor that design specifically to their needs rather than just kind of taking a shot in the dark and hoping that, you know,

okay, well, you know, you need this, whatever. That's where the regrets are. So if you're kind of in the early process, I would say to anybody listening out there of thinking about planning for an outdoor space or, you know, a landscape or any kind of space, to be quite honest, we'd start thinking about those things first. You know, what do I intend to use this for? Is it a large family reunion once a year that we might have 20 or 30 people on there? Or is it, you know, more, we're going to have five to six people in the neighborhood regularly here. As we're getting in the fall, the fire pit season, we're getting a lot of calls about fire features, you know, outdoor heating features as well. people want to extend that season a little bit longer.

And, you know, first thing I tell them, you know, when they're thinking about an idea, or maybe they saw something on Pinterest or House or some of these sites, is, well, what's the driver behind this? You know, why do we need a fireplace versus a fire pit? How many people do you want to gather around this? What options, what do you know about these things? You know, gas versus wood, different things like that. That can be just a simple question that people might not have. put a lot of thought and effort into, and that helps a designer in any field, the more that

you kind of have specifics as to, this is what my intent is, this is what I want to see the spaces. That gives the designer some guidelines a little bit to then weave their creativeness back and forth and spin that in such a way so that it's both functional but aesthetically pleasing at the same time. This guy is so good at this. This guy is so good at this. Taylor made for the talk show format. interesting question here that's come from the mayor of McIntyre on McIntyre Road. He says this, ask your guess what he would do with the Dewberry Hotel Skeleton. Wow.

Well, we want to open controversy here, huh? That's a cross from your office. It's a caddy corner. Yeah, it is caddy corner. You know, it's really a shame. And I think it's a shame that the Commonwealth of Virginia doesn't have more legality power to push and persuade. this. In Ohio, we have imminent domain laws that could have taken this

back years ago. I was actually involved in a large commercial project in Cincinnati near the Kenwood Mall. That similar thing happened, and luckily we got out of it, but a large contract, multi-story, multi-mixed use building

set on their edge of I-71 and sat vacant for about eight to nine years before another developer came in and eventually did that. you know i think there's a lot from my inside resources and talking to various engineers there's a lot of issues uh with that and trying to resurrect it as is um you know my my my fear would be structural soundness and things like that i think there's also the initial design there was some some errors there as well so with ceiling height ceiling height uh h-fack issues you know with that there

there's there's a lot of that and uh is it a tear down i think think you would have to do either a very, very heavy major retrofit, which if I'm in the developer's chair, I'm probably not investing that much for a refit. I think it does have to be probably completely redone. So you're just buying the dirt at that point? Yeah, I think you're probably just probably getting a nice expensive piece of real estate at that point now. But, you know, I think I would like to see something happen to that site. I think it's so significant, you know, it's right in the heart of the downtown mall. I think there are things that could come in there. And, you know, it's like all things, you know, it takes money and it takes someone that's, you know,

will take the risk to do that. But I would hope, you know, there's plenty of folks in the community here. And I know some of them personally that would take a gamble of trying to invest that. I think getting Mr. Dewberry on board might be a different story, but we'll leave that as it may. But I would like to hope that. to see something redeveloped there. I know there's been a few hotel chains that have taken a gander at it. You know, it might be something along that.

You know, it might be, you know, the UVA Foundation or whoever, I don't know, but, you know, looking at a piece there that I think it's so significant as a spot we have to do something there to progress because eventually it's gonna become a structural issue. It's gonna be a hazard. Yeah, the city's gonna have to do it. If not already.

Yeah. If not already. And the crazy thing is, and we've seen it from the eighth floor of the building across the way, there's folks that are like climbing into this structure and graffitiing the building at the top levels or the roof of the building. Yeah, that would be a tragedy. I mean, an absolute tragedy. Yeah. And having come from, you know, Rust Belt City and, you know, lived around Rust Belt areas for about half my life, you know,

you hear about those type of things where it's a safety thing and then unfortunately someone falls kills themselves or gets injured severely and that's what I would hate to see you know I think they've they've done their best to try to secure it up but you can only do so much right and I think you know we really need to and and I think that kind of maybe goes back to that that public private partnership maybe the city can help out in some way maybe there's a tax incentive an abatement or something like that that could incentivize people. I think that's what he's looking for. So, you know, we'll see, you know, if that's positive. There's positives and negatives to all of that. Maybe a portion of that could be a public space as well. So I think there's that kind

of pushing poll dynamic. I know there's been a lot of people working on it. A lot of people have taken, you know, stabs at trying to come to some agreement on that. But I think, you know, that's going to be a difficult one if we don't have collaboration. I think that's where it's going to have to start there and start with the ownership. And then who can we find partners with to collaborate with, either public or privately? This interview legitimately has exceeded my expectations. You follow the storylines locally extremely well. Brian Harris, formerly of the Ark of the Piedmont, now the executive director of the Ronald McDonald's,

has given you big time props on the show as we speak. He's a great guy. Love Ryan. Comments continue to come in. Can he highlight some of the best commercial designs that he has seen in Charlottesville, Almore County, locally, and why?

And then I'll piggyback on that question. That one comes from Crozet. I'll piggyback on that. What are your thoughts on how Stonefield was executed? Yeah, Stonefield's an interesting exercise. You know, I think there are definite wins in the Stonefield development, I think there's some misses, too.

You know, I think, you know, we're now seeing the construction of a pedestrian bridge to kind of connect, you know, and there's controversy there to parking lots to parking lots, but, you know, I think there needed to be some more pedestrian connection one way or another initially.

I think the green space there is severely underutilized. You know, I think that could be done up a little bit more for programming and things like that. They're doing some of that programming as well. You know, I think it's unfortunate that we haven't seen, you know, a full 100% capacity within the development since its inception. People can point fingers that's the rent cost, that location, the business environment,

you know. We've lost some great restaurants in there. You know, we've retained some great ones. My wife and I, full disclosure, frequenters of Burtons quite a bit. Burtons crushes it. Yeah, they do. But, you know, I would like to see some of that fill in a little bit more before we move on to more development. I think that's one thing both Charlottesville and Elmore County could do better of is, what are we doing to do the infill?

And if you're going back to some of those other major cities, that's what their focus is on right now. How do we infill what we have, not just keep expanding, you know, so. So there's a lot of class A real estate around Jerry, as you probably know. There's a lot of lots and empty lots within the core of the city and around the surrounding area. That could be infilled as well. Before we just kind of sprawl, sprawl, sprawl out further, further, further. Because eventually it'll all be up 29 and maybe south on 29 and, you know, heading east on 64. But, you know, I'd like to see a little bit more of that reinvestment there.

Now, back to the original question, from commercial design standpoint, there's a lot of highlights of some great designs in and around the city, you know, from a commercial development standpoint. You know, we talked about one in Bel Air, right next to Bel Air Market, that I happened to be part of about six, seven years ago. You're seeing that out, you know, with salvage brewing moving into the old John Deer. Yeah, yeah. The salvage site crushed it. Yeah, yeah. Right of the program, Hunters. Yeah.

Hunter cracks. He listens to the show, by the way. Well, hello, Hunter. But, yeah, we partnered together with a different firm I was working with at the time. And, you know, just little details on that site, particularly permeable paving, you know, in and around the parking line. What's that mean? So there are pavers that actually introduce water so we don't have to have drainage runoff. Okay.

So in Charlottesville, there are taxes. for impervious surfaces on for certain commercial businesses so you can lessen that not only from an economic standpoint but also from an environmental standpoint that we're retaining the stormwater as much as possible on site so we're actually redirecting the water down rather than shutting it off so a lot of that parking area in and around that that site was designed that way you know with bios whale basins and things like that as well i think uh you know i was also part with another firm in the in the redeveloping development of Boershead at the front main, you know, in there. And they did, again, another great example of permeable pavement. A lot of the landscape there is native. A lot of, you know, that installation was great. And so there's, you know, and it's, you know, it's one of our, our corridors that really highlights the area, obviously, from a tourism standpoint. You know, I think there are things out in Crozet, you know, that are happening right now, that are interesting. Interesting. Lots of great different designs, you know, from a landscape architecture standpoint, you know, what the university is doing and their initiatives from grounds, you know, are really trying to take much more of a sustainable. If you've been to the Dell, which was done a few years back.

Used to be guys basketball court. It's completely different right now. Yeah. Yeah. So all of that engineering corridor all around that, I think there's some really great lead designs and more organic. design is happening there. The push that they're doing out Ivy Road right now, I think provides a lot of opportunity for some really great design. Huge opportunity there. Yeah, yep. So I think there's a lot going on. Sometimes you need to stop and kind of take a look to really appreciate it. But there are some really great design firms in this town that have worked on some of these projects. There are some out-of-town design firms that have worked on these projects. And they've put a lot of thought and effort into this. So I'm happy, to see with some of the new development and growth, there is a consciousness of trying to be somewhat

sustainable, of trying to think progressively in terms of what we're doing design-wise for the future so that, you know, our biggest pollution, a lot of people don't realize from a hard, solid waste standpoint, is construction debris. So if we design something to sustain 50, 100 years rather than, say, 20, that's a win right there. So I think what we're seeing with some of the projects going in the ground right now, I see much more of that long-term vision rather than kind of a short-lived vision. Last question for you. Comments are coming in, and we're going to get to those comments, guys, as much as we can.

We wanted to go 25 minutes with Tim. We're now 50 minutes because the dude is absolutely crushing this interview right here. this question comes in this is from Crozay sounds like your guest Tim is very well traveled based on his travels what does Charlottesville most

resemble to him what other cities and why that's a good question my wife and I were out her family had a cabin in Wyoming and we made a stop in Fort Collins Colorado and I think

Charlottesville and Fort Collins have a lot of similarities in terms of size they also have pedestrian mall area as well, just like Boulder, Colorado. It's a little smaller. But, you know, I think that has a lot of similarities to Charlottesville. You know, been to British Columbia, and there's some towns up that way, smaller towns that way, that have a lot of the same feel in the Pacific Northwest as well.

You know, I would probably go back to my Ohio roots. You know, you brought up Millersburg, but there are a lot of small mid-range-sized towns, Lebanon, Ohio. I'll give a little shout out to my best friend that's a city and regional planner there. They do a lot of these programming things really well, the brick-line streets and things like that. So scope and scale, I think there's a lot of examples of what Charlottesville has, but Charlottesville is unique. We're not Austin, Texas, where we're trying to grow as rapidly and vertically. You know, I was just in Austin about a year ago and kind of somewhat disappointed that a lot of the low slung scale stuff is kind of going away.

So we've retained a lot of that. A lot of the areas around the country, I'll give it to like over the Rhine in Cincinnati. It was a great walkable and an urban resurgence. You talk about 10, 15 years ago, just an urban wasteland and that public-private partnership that I was talking about with 3CDC really regenerated it. And it's totally different. And it's like a campus connector corridor with the university up the road and everything like that. So there's a lot of similarities that way, too. Cincinnati's a whole is a bigger city, but some of those corridors and areas around there feel very, very similar to Charlottesville.

This interview is fantastic. Tim Haskies, close with this. Let them know how they can get in touch with you, Oak Valley. You guys are anywhere and everywhere online. And I think you would happily connect with people. Absolutely. Yeah, so, you know, Oak Valley, LH.com is our website. That's a very easy way to reach out.

Tim at Oak ValleyLH.com is a great way to direct connect with me as well. You can call our office off the website as well. They can put you in touch with me. And then we're obviously on social media and things like that as well. Or if you just see me in and around town, you know, come up, say hi. Love to talk and chat with strangers all the time. Thank you. Thank you.

We appreciate the time. It was a lot of fun. Absolutely. It was a lot of fun, guys. Tim Haskies, Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes. He was fantastic. Thank you, Tim. Guys, you see what the show is about.

It's about introducing you to people that have big ideas and have a lot of experience that can make the community a better place. And I think Tim absolutely embodies that. We'll close the show on a couple other topics. And the last topic I want to close the show, Judah, as you offer a little instruction here, is the lawsuit that's in the works, guys, for UVA health and their former leaders. We'll talk about that lawsuit on tomorrow's show. It's a dozy, and it's now getting some attention. The type of attention, I think, that we anticipated it getting

when this UVA health trouble started brewing last year, if not longer. We'll talk about that on the... I Love Seville Show tomorrow. We'll continue to dig deeper into Rivana Station, Rivana Future, North Fork, and what's expanded, what's expected on that part of Almaro County. From now until 2029, I think we have a pretty significant level of positive momentum for this community. We'll highlight the school board forum that happened. The school board forum that took place last night will air the highlights and low lights of the school board forum.

from last night on the show as well. We'll highlight some of the partners that make the program possible, along with Oak Valley Custom Hartscapes, Conan Owen of Surveedie of Central Virginia, Judah, locally owned and operated. Conan Owen and Surveedia, Central Virginia are who our firm uses for our signage needs, window decals, signage, the banners behind us, direct mail.

Conan Owen, Sir Speedy of Central Virginia, locally owned and operated. The guy is absolutely a wizard when it comes to any application for your logo. And then, of course, our friends at Charlesville Sanitary Supply. The Vermilion family, class act, gentlemen, Charlesfulsanitary Supply.com, and located on high street. 61 years of business, Charlottesfell Sanitary Supply.

Five generations of Vermilions in Almore County, and the business is three generations strong. Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, the best of the best. That's the show. Tim Hess crushed it. When you see Tim Hess around this community, or you need some custom hardscape work, Tim Hess and Oak Valley, who you call.

The guy is what you see is what you get, a likable, straightforward, affable guy. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera, thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love C-O show. Thank you.